August 21, 2008

State appointed Bishop Joseph Li Shan said yesterday that there are "big developments" in relations between China and the Holy See and that he is hoping for a visit by Pope Benedict.

"We strongly hope that Benedict XVI will make a trip to China," Joseph Li Shan told Italy's RAI state TV according to an International Herald Tribune report. "Relations with the Vatican are constantly improving. We can say that there are big developments."

Li is well regarded by the Vatican, and his installation last year was seen as a positive sign in the long standing dispute between China and the Holy See over who should appoint bishops, the paper says.

China's Communist Party forced Chinese Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, and the two sides have not restored formal relations.

Many of China's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state approved church and often are arrested or harassed.

But in Wednesday's interview, Li, whose comments were translated into Italian, said that "the problem of clandestine Catholics does not exist."

Benedict sent a special letter to Catholics in China last year, praising the underground church, but also urging the faithful to reconcile with followers of the official church.

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