China Still Resists Ties with Vatican

(Compass) – Pope John Paul II died with an unfulfilled wish to visit China . Chinese Catholics are now wondering how the election of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, will affect the destiny of China ’s Catholic community, still divided between official and unofficial churches. The government-controlled Catholic Patriotic is still denied official contact with the Vatican , while the unregistered Catholic churches profess loyalty to the pope. Beijing offered “warm greetings” to the new pope after his election, but by early May was reiterating its insistence that the Vatican break off ties with Taiwan and cease interfering with the “internal affairs” of the Catholic church in China .