I guess, as with all businesses these days, this had to happen.
I am not a religious person but this still sickens and saddens me.
Vatican calls for ‘normal China relations’
January 21, 2007 01:31am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
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THE Vatican said today it wanted to normalise relations with Beijing, calling for “respectful and constructive dialogue” to rebuild ties severed nearly six decades ago.
In a statement following a two-day review of the Vatican’s China policy, the Holy See said it wished to “overcome misunderstandings of the past” with Beijing, which does not allow Chinese Catholics to recognise papal authority.
While Catholicism is allowed in China, a state-sanctioned “patriotic Church” with an estimated five million members does not answer to the pope and ordains its own bishops. A clandestine Church, with some 10 million adherents, tenaciously maintains links with the Vatican.
A longstanding modus vivendi between the Holy See and Beijing – by which most of the bishops of China’s official Church have been legitimised by the pope – was upset last year when Chinese state authorities went ahead with the ordination of four bishops that did not have Pope Benedict XVI’s tacit approval.
Diplomatic ties between China and the Vatican have been severed since 1951, two years after Beijing’s officially atheist communist government took power.
Normalisation would require the Vatican to break off ties with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.
The Vatican statement said participants expressed the desire to normalise relations at “different levels” in order to benefit the Church and work together for the good of the Chinese people and for peace in the world.
Pope Benedict XVI did not attend the meeting, which was led by Vatican number two Tarcisio Bertone, but he was broadly informed of the discussions and “has decided to send a letter to Catholics in China,” the Vatican said.
Among the top Vatican officials and Church leaders at the meeting was Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, an outspoken advocate of human rights and religious freedom who is pushing for a change of direction on China.
“It’s about time that people know that we want to be Catholics who are in communion with all the Catholics in the world, under the direction of the bishop of Rome (the Pope),” Zen wrote in his diocesan weekly on January 7.