halleyscomet
Penultimate Amazing
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- Dec 7, 2012
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Why has your pope concluded an agreement with the chinese regime?
On plane, pope discusses sex abuse, corruption of cover-up, China pact
One of the letters, he said, came from China and was signed jointly by a bishop from the government-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and a bishop from "the, let's say, traditional Catholic Church."
Reporters also asked the pope about the Vatican-China agreement for the nomination of bishops, which was announced Sept. 22 while the pope was in Lithuania, and about the suffering of Chinese Catholics who had risked their lives to remain faithful to the pope and not accept the communist government's control over the church.
Some Catholics in China "will suffer" and feel betrayed, he said, "but they have great faith" and in the end will trust the pope.
Pope Francis praised the team of Vatican negotiators who worked "two steps forward, one step back" for 10 years, but he insisted he bore all responsibility for the agreement and, especially, for regularizing the situation of seven bishops who had been ordained without Vatican approval.
With every "peace treaty" and every negotiation, he said, "both sides lose something" and for the Vatican that was complete control over the nomination of bishops.
However, he said, people should remember that for centuries the kings of Spain and Portugal nominated the bishops of Latin America, and the Austro-Hungarian emperors did the same in their territory.
The new Vatican-Sino agreement, Pope Francis said, sets up "a dialogue on eventual candidates" for dioceses in China, "but the naming is the pope's -- let that be clear."