Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical or circular letter to bishops, is due to be translated for the first time into Chinese and will be titled "Caritas in veritate", or "Love in Truth" reported Italian daily La Repubblica.Benedict began working on the encyclical in 2007 and will touch upon topics related to Catholic social teaching, as well as poverty, peace, international cooperation, disarmament, wars, energy sources, globalisation and microcredit, among others.
The Pope's first two encyclicals, 'Populorum Progressio' and 'Solicitudo rei socialis' examined the virtues of love and hope.
According to Vatican sources, the four-chapter encyclical will no longer be published on 1 May as previously planned, but will instead be delayed in order for the translations of the encyclical to be completed, in particular the Chinese translation.
The decision to offer a Chinese version of the papal letter comes as Pope Benedict XVI has sought to to improve relations with China, sending a letter last June which offered dialogue with Chinese authorities.
And in September, in another sign of a thaw, Father Joseph Li Shan was installed as Bishop of Beijing, the first for over 50 years to have tacit approval of the Pope.
In December China's state-run Catholic Church installed Joseph Gan Junqiu, 43, as Bishop of Guangzhou and he was said to have been approved by the Vatican.
China's estimated eight to 12 million Catholics are currently split between the Beijing-approved Patriotic Church and an underground church which remains loyal to Rome
China broke off relations with the Vatican over 50 years ago and the two sides have clashed over issues such as the ordination of bishops and Taiwan.
Previous encyclicals by Pope Benedict have been published in other languages, including Arabic. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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