From Catholic News Service

Two Vatican officials visiting China reported

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Two Vatican officials, often sent as quiet envoys to countries where Catholics survive with difficulty, were visiting China in late June, reported an Italian missionary who runs a news agency focusing on Asia.

Father Bernardo Cervellera, editor of AsiaNews, said June 27 that Archbishop Claudio Celli, secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, and Msgr. Gianfranco Rota Graziosi of the Vatican Secretariat of State arrived in Beijing June 25 for talks with government officials.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Vatican spokesman, said in a June 27 statement, "I have no comment to make regarding news reported by the press about contacts under way between a delegation of the Holy See and Chinese authorities."

However, another Vatican official confirmed the news was true, but said the visit was meant to be secret.

The daily South China Morning Post, based in Hong Kong, also reported the visit of a Vatican delegation was under way.

Even after being appointed to his current position, Archbishop Celli, a former undersecretary of state at the Vatican, along with Msgr. Rota, has continued his diplomatic missions to countries such as Vietnam, North Korea and Libya, meeting with government officials with the aim of increasing the freedom afforded to Catholics in those countries and exploring possibilities for formal diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Father Cervellera, a Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions missionary who had worked in China, reported that the two Vatican officials would be in Beijing until July 1.

"The word is that the Vatican itself does not have high hopes as to what it can achieve, maintaining that it is nevertheless absolutely necessary to keep doors open," he wrote.

He quoted Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong as telling reporters the visit "is a friendly gesture ... but I do not expect the talks will progress very quickly."

"The meeting of the Holy See's delegation with representatives of the Chinese government comes at a time of tension caused by the recent series of illicit episcopal ordinations, which the Vatican forcefully criticized as 'an attack against religious freedom,'" Father Cervellera said.

At the same time, he said, the government continues to insist it is open to a dialogue with the Vatican on the condition that the Vatican breaks its ties with Taiwan and that it pledges not to interfere in China's internal affairs, including naming bishops for the country's Catholic communities.

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