Pope Francis ‘ first trip to Asia could afford the pontiff a fresh opportunity to reach out to China, one of the most complex and troublesome issues facing the Vatican.
Fraught relations between the Holy See and Beijing overshadow the Catholic Church’s aspirations for Asia. China is attractive for the church given the country’s huge population and the spiritual vacuum left by eroding Maoist ideology. But renewed troubles over the naming of Catholic bishops have cast a fresh chill on relations between the two sides.
Catholicism first reached China in 1294 and eventually gained influence, particularly among the upper classes. But after 1949 the officially atheist Communist Party expelled Catholic and other missionaries, and in 1957 it established the state-run Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which rejects Vatican authority.
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Deborah Ball and Mark Magnier, Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1vD0kXI
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