Source: Syracuse.com
Wire Service: AP
The Vatican said Saturday it will publish a new document for Chinese Catholics-its latest step in support of a community often persecuted by the country's communist authorities.
The document is a follow-up to a special letter that Pope Benedict XVI addressed to Catholics in China in 2007. Written in a question-and-answer format like the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it will summarize and discuss the contents of the pope's letter, the Vatican said in a statement.
At the time, China did not directly respond to the letter, but officials in the state-sanctioned church called it a positive step.
The new document was prepared for the second anniversary of the letter and will be published in English and Chinese on the Vatican's Web site on Sunday.
May 24 is the day Benedict has dedicated to worldwide prayers for the Chinese church, and the Vatican said it wanted to take the occasion to recall and discuss the pope's letter in a more accessible format.
China's officially atheistic Communist Party forced the country's Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, and the two sides have not restored formal relations. Beijing sees the Vatican tradition of the pope naming his own bishops as interference in the country.
China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church and often suffer arrests and harassment.
Benedict has made the improvement of relations with Beijing a priority of his papacy. In his 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics, he praised the underground church, but also urged the faithful to reconcile with followers of the official church.