Reuters, Vatican City :
Five blocks from the Vatican, on the bustling, tourist-packed street leading to St. Peter’s Basilica, a Taiwanese flag flutters from the window of a third story suite of offices that house Taipei’s embassy to the Holy See.
These days, the staff inside are anxious. They know that one night they may have to lower that flag – red and blue with a white sun – for the last time.
As the Vatican and China move closer to a historic deal on the appointment of bishops, which would signal a warming of once-frigid relations, diplomats and scholars say Taiwan could lose the most from the deal..
Under the deal, the Vatican will have a say in negotiations for the appointment of future bishops in China, whose Catholics are divided between an “underground” Church loyal to the pope and a government-backed Church. Even a partial resolution of the issue could open the way for eventual diplomatic relations between Beijing and the Vatican. That would give the Church a legal framework to look after all of China’s estimated 12 million Catholics. It would also leave Taiwan in the diplomatic lurch.
The Vatican is one of only 20 states that still recognize Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China. Beijing insists that if countries want relations with it they must break ties with Taiwan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said last month that China had always been sincere in its efforts to improve China-Vatican relations.
A senior Vatican official said however that the accord on bishops “is not a political one,” suggesting that it does not include any formal link to diplomatic relations and that the Vatican will not be the next country to switch relations to China from Taiwan.
Catholic leaders in Taipei are also hopeful.
“They (the Vatican and Beijing) won’t build diplomatic ties. You need to share common values with each other in order to establish diplomatic ties,” Archbishop John Hung of Taipei told Reuters in an interview in Taipei. “The values the Vatican holds are different from those of the Chinese Communist Party. Building ties with the Vatican requires values including freedom and democracy.”
Hung said the Church in Taiwan is “sleeping well at night”.
Some experts say diplomatic ties between Beijing and the Vatican are inevitable, even if probably not right around the corner.
“The Church does not have preference among its children and it’s clear that the Vatican does not want to do anything to displease Catholics on Taiwan” said Agostino Giovagnoli, a history professor at Milan’s Sacred Heart Catholic University and the author of two books on Catholicism in China.
Five blocks from the Vatican, on the bustling, tourist-packed street leading to St. Peter’s Basilica, a Taiwanese flag flutters from the window of a third story suite of offices that house Taipei’s embassy to the Holy See.
These days, the staff inside are anxious. They know that one night they may have to lower that flag – red and blue with a white sun – for the last time.
As the Vatican and China move closer to a historic deal on the appointment of bishops, which would signal a warming of once-frigid relations, diplomats and scholars say Taiwan could lose the most from the deal..
Under the deal, the Vatican will have a say in negotiations for the appointment of future bishops in China, whose Catholics are divided between an “underground” Church loyal to the pope and a government-backed Church. Even a partial resolution of the issue could open the way for eventual diplomatic relations between Beijing and the Vatican. That would give the Church a legal framework to look after all of China’s estimated 12 million Catholics. It would also leave Taiwan in the diplomatic lurch.
The Vatican is one of only 20 states that still recognize Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China. Beijing insists that if countries want relations with it they must break ties with Taiwan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said last month that China had always been sincere in its efforts to improve China-Vatican relations.
A senior Vatican official said however that the accord on bishops “is not a political one,” suggesting that it does not include any formal link to diplomatic relations and that the Vatican will not be the next country to switch relations to China from Taiwan.
Catholic leaders in Taipei are also hopeful.
“They (the Vatican and Beijing) won’t build diplomatic ties. You need to share common values with each other in order to establish diplomatic ties,” Archbishop John Hung of Taipei told Reuters in an interview in Taipei. “The values the Vatican holds are different from those of the Chinese Communist Party. Building ties with the Vatican requires values including freedom and democracy.”
Hung said the Church in Taiwan is “sleeping well at night”.
Some experts say diplomatic ties between Beijing and the Vatican are inevitable, even if probably not right around the corner.
“The Church does not have preference among its children and it’s clear that the Vatican does not want to do anything to displease Catholics on Taiwan” said Agostino Giovagnoli, a history professor at Milan’s Sacred Heart Catholic University and the author of two books on Catholicism in China.
