Nunciature to open in Beijing

Rome tugs at Bamboo Curtain
BY BRUCE JOHNSTON IN ROME AND LUKE COPPEN THE VATICAN said this week that it was prepared to transfer its diplomatic staff from Taiwan to mainland China a controversial move which would signal official Vatican recognition of the Communist government.
Vatican Foreign Minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, said on Monday that the Vatican was ready to move its nunciature from Taipei to Beijing, ending the Vatican's long-standing recognition of Taiwan as the home of the de facto government of the Republic of China. Mgr Tauran told the Corriere della Sera that breaking relations with Taiwan would be in the interests of the Church.
However, his comments were brushed aside by the Chinese Foreign Minister, who was visiting Italy this week with President Jiang Zemin. The Minister's spokesman said that "words are not enough" to resolve the standoff between Beijing and the Holy See, which began in 1951 when Catholics were driven underground.
"China wants to improve relations with the Vatican," he said. "But the Vatican has first to break its diplomatic relations with Taiwan and must not interfere in China's internal affairs under the pretext of religious activity."
The Vatican's policy shift was greeted sceptically by Taiwanese Catholics. Bishop Joseph Wang Yu-jung said that the island's Catholics would respect the Vatican's decision if it leads to better conditions for underground Catholics in mainland China.
He said: "Our Catholics have already been psychologically prepared for this. However, we hope that the Holy See will be careful not to hurt the feelings of our local faithful."
Mgr Tauran said that the main stumbling block to better relations with Beijing was the question of papal authority. He said he was surprised that the Communist government viewed the Vatican's desire to appoint bishops independently as a violation of sovereignty.
"The reference to so-called `interference' gives cause for considerable surprise," he said. " I can't understand how a relationship of a religious nature, such as one which exists between the Pope and Catholics, can be held up as an example of interference in another country's affairs."
The Vatican's offer to recognise the People's Republic of China is seen as a step towards resolving the deeper problem of authority. Neville Kyrke-Smith, UK Director of Aid to the Church in Need, said that the Chinese State feared the Vatican's political influence over the country's ten to 14 million Catholics. "Their fear is that the Roman Catholic Church will encourage a move towards democracy, as it did in eastern Europe. They fear that the Church will encourage people to stand up and tear down the Bamboo Curtain," he said.
Pope John Paul II has often expressed his wish to normalise relations with China. A new papal biography, published this autumn, reveals that the Pope wrote in 1983 to the Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping, seeking to establish direct relations between China and the Holy See. In Witness To Hope, George Weigel claims that Deng Xiaoping never replied.
Editorial Comment — p7