The Vatican has told China that Pope Francis is willing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping while the two leaders are in Kazakhstan’s capital, but China said there was not enough time, a Vatican source said on Thursday. fair (15).
The source did not elaborate on how or when the Vatican approached China, with which it is engaged in a delicate dialogue over the status of the Roman Catholic Church in the country.
According to the source, the Vatican made “a manifestation of availability”. The Chinese side said it “appreciated the gesture” but that there was no free time on Xi’s schedule.
Both the pope and Xi were in Nur-Sultan on Wednesday (14). Xi was there for an official visit and the pope to attend a congress of world religious leaders.
A meeting between the two men, however brief, would have been historic.
Speaking to journalists who accompanied him on his flight to the Central Asian Republic on Tuesday (13), Francis was asked if he could meet Xi in his capital and replied timidly, without giving details: “I have no news about that. ”.
Asked if he was ready to go to China, Francis replied: “I am always ready to go to China.”
The pope has been trying to improve historically bad relations between the Holy See and China, and told Reuters in an interview in July that he hoped to renew a secret and contested deal on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops in China.
Source: CNN Brasil
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