Beijing, Vatican express enthusiasm for ties

BEIJING (AP) - China and the Vatican look more eager than ever to forge diplomatic relations after decades of estrangement, and the figure pushing Beijing to make a deal could be an unexpected one - the leader of rival Taiwan.

President Chen Shui-bian's trip to Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II alarmed Beijing, foreign observers say.

It reminded China that as the last European country with ties to Taiwan, Vatican City gives the island a stage to assert its autonomy.

After years of official indifference, that shock gave Chinese leaders a "stronger desire'' to persuade the Vatican to switch relations from Taipei to Beijing, said Anthony Lam, a researcher at the Holy Spirit Study Center in Hong Kong.

"I think Chen did an important thing to bring the Vatican and the Beijing government together,'' Lam said.

"He could be the catalyst of the process.''

Neither Beijing nor the Holy See has said publicly that they are talking formally about possible relations.

But leaders of the world's most populous country and the world's largest religious denomination have publicly declared their desire for ties.

The key sticking point is what relationship Beijing will allow the Vatican to have with Roman Catholics in China, who were ordered in 1951 to break off relations with the pope.

Healing the split would give Beijing an important symbolic victory in its campaign to isolate Taiwan on the world stage.

The Vatican would get access to a growth area for Christianity, as millions of Chinese turn to religion amid wrenching social change.

"We are sincere in developing relations with the Vatican,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said Thursday.

John Paul's successor, Pope Benedict XVI, in May invited countries without official ties to the Vatican to work on forming them - a remark that a Vatican diplomat said was aimed at China.

Breaking relations with Taiwan could be relatively easy for the Holy See, because its religious hierarchy would remain in place on the self-ruled island.

More contentious would be the clash between China's rejection of any outside role in its religious bodies and the Vatican's insistence on appointing and supervising bishops.

Communist leaders allow worship only in churches run by the official Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which appoints its own priests and bishops.

It recognizes the pope as a spiritual leader but rejects a Vatican role in church affairs.

The official church claims 4 million followers but foreign experts say as many as 12 million more worship in secret in unofficial churches that remain loyal to the Vatican.

Priests and bishops of the underground church are regularly arrested and harassed.

Beijing insists that the Vatican avoid interfering in its domestic affairs.

But it hasn't specified what that means, leading to suggestions that it might be willing to reach some compromise.

Bishops in the official church "are pressing the government to understand that the link to the Vatican is necessary to their faith,'' said the Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, director of the Rome-based religious news agency AsiaNews.

Many official bishops already have an informal link to Rome. Since 1982, more than 60 have obtained Vatican endorsement of their religious status.

Many are thought to be in regular contact with Rome.

The official church has its own contacts, sending theologians to Rome from time to time to keep up with church doctrine.

On the day of John Paul's death in April, Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium was in Beijing on the highest-level known visit by a church figure since the 1951 break.

Danneels was here to meet with leaders of the Patriotic Catholic Association.

But that was cut short when Danneels left for Rome following John Paul's death.

The Vatican has set a possible precedent for China by making compromises with other communist states.

In Vietnam, the government picks bishops from a list of candidates submitted by the Holy See.

Such an arrangement appears unlikely in China, partly because bishops chafe at interference by the Patriotic Catholic Association and religious affairs officials, said Cervellera.

"Bishops in China say, `We want to be ourselves directly in touch with the Holy Father,''' he said.

The Vatican already has talked with clergy in Taiwan to prepare them for a possible diplomatic break, said Cervellera.

But the Vatican hasn't mentioned that possibility to Taiwan's government, which doesn't foresee any change soon, said a spokesman for the island's Foreign Ministry.

"The Vatican's basic principle is that there should be no interference from domestic politics in religious affairs, in the nomination of bishops,'' said spokesman Michel Ching-long Lu.

"In the near future, we do not see Beijing accepting this kind of demand.''

Previous tentative efforts at contacts have been cut short.

In 1999, Chinese officials reportedly said they would start talks with the Vatican. But just months later, China's official church shocked the Vatican by investing five new bishops in January 2000 on the same day that the Holy See also elevated bishops - a gesture that appeared to belittle the pope's authority. - AP

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