Chinese bishops will participate in a meeting next week at the Vatican about the problems of the Catholic Church in China, the Holy See said Saturday. Also attending the meeting March 10-12 will be top Vatican officials.
Pope Benedict XVI has made the improvement of often-tense relations with China a priority of his papacy, and he is keen on restoring diplomatic relations with Beijing.
He sent a special letter to Catholics in China last year, and the Vatican said reaction to the missive will be assessed at the meeting. In the letter, Benedict praised the underground church in China but also urged the faithful to reconcile with followers of the nation's official church.
During the meeting, "the principal aspects of the life of the Church in China will be discussed," the Vatican said. Millions of Chinese belong to unofficial congregations that are loyal to the pope and sometimes risk harassment. Catholic clergy in China have at times been jailed.
China forced Roman Catholics to break with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the officially atheist Communist Party took power. Worship is allowed only in state-backed churches, which appoint their own bishops in defiance of the Vatican.
But last year, a cleric well-regarded by the Vatican was installed as bishop of Beijing by China's state-controlled Church, a move seen as easing tensions between the Chinese government and the Holy See, which insists that pontiffs must appoint bishops.
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