The Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity celebrated a
confirmation ceremony for a German community in Beijing after being
given the go-ahead by the government.
A sign that Sino-Vatican relations are thawing. 
This is how many observers saw the mass celebrated by the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Mgr. Josef Clemens, last 12 May, in Beijing, after an invitation extended to him by the German Catholic community of “St. Joseph Freinademetz”. Clemens administered the sacrament of Confirmation to 23 children in St. Joseph’s Cathedral (East Church) in Beijing.
The cathedral is part of a small parish, recognised as part of China’s official Church. This obviously indicates the celebration was authorised by the Chinese government.
In his homily, the Secretary included a reference to the window of the Holy Spirit (1656-1666) which is part of the magnificent Cathedra Sancti Petri, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). His intention was to illustrate how the Pope’s ministry is guided by the Holy Spirit. “This window – Clemens said – evokes God’s Spirit, the Spirit of the first day of creation.”
“The light of the Holy Spirit – the bishop continued – allows us to see deeply, it’s message allows us to recognise all that is lasting and essential and also to distinguish between what is and what appears to be. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of discernment, of essentialness and of constancy. The Holy Spirit gives us courage and civil commitment; it lets us see actions from a non-mainstream point of view and gives us the strength to live life according to God’s will. The Holy Spirit encourages coherence between thoughts and acts, whilst pushing us to speak frankly (parrhesia) and acting accordingly.”
“It seems to me – the prelate concluded, in his address to his fellow Germans – it is the meeting of great cultures with their histories, traditions and values systems that forms and reinforces the sense of a need for a common reference system for the solution of the world’s great problems. It is often only by detaching ourselves and looking at things from a distance that we realise what it is we ourselves and other people need.”