Vatican, China break impasse

Vatican City

Pope Francis has recognised seven bishops who had been ordained in China without the Vatican’s approval, as the Holy See and Beijing reached a breakthrough deal at the weekend on an issue that fuelled tensions for decades.

China’s insistence that it must approve appointments in the world’s most populous country had clashed with absolute papal authority to pick bishops.

The accord reached yesterday gives the Holy See a decisive role in the appointment of all bishops in a country.

The Pope, who was in Lithuania on his latest stop on his four-day tour of the Baltics, said he hoped the deal, ‘‘will allow the wounds of the past to be overcome’’ and lead to full Catholic unity in China.

There are an estimated 12 million Catholics in China – a tiny minority – who are divided between a government-run association whose clergy are chosen by the Communist Party and an unofficial church that swears allegiance to the Vatican.

The Vatican has not had diplomatic relations with Beijing since 1951, two years after the founding of the communist People’s Republic.

Taiwan, which claims independence from China and views the Holy See as its only diplomatic ally in Europe, watched the decision with unease.

Previous attempts to restore relations between China and the Vatican had been unsuccessful over Beijing’s demand that it give up recognition of Taiwan and promise not to interfere in religious issues in China. The rapprochement was criticised by some Catholics and rights activists, who pointed out that the Chinese government was tightening its grip on all religious groups. Experts and activists contended that as President Xi Jinping was consolidating power, he was waging the most systematic suppression of Christianity since the Chinese constitution allowed religious freedom in 1982.

On Friday Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, said that the government had been ‘‘closing churches, burning Bibles and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith’’.

Crosses had been removed from churches, printed religious materials and holy items confiscated, and church-run kindergartens closed.

In Beijing, the foreign ministry put out a statement yesterday saying only: ‘‘China and the Vatican will continue to maintain communications and push forward the process of improving relations between the two sides.’’

Greg Burke, a Vatican spokesman, told reporters the aim of the accord ‘‘is not political but pastoral, allowing the faithful to have bishops who are in communion with Rome but at the same time recognised by Chinese authorities.’’ –