新闻来源：www.abcnews.go.com
原文地址：Pope makes new overture to China, calling Beijing ‘a promise and hope’ for the church
新闻日期：2024-09-13
教皇方济各周五在结束亚洲四国之行后，称中国为“希望”、“承诺”，并对北京进行了热情洋溢的赞美。
他在从新加坡返回途中的一次飞机记者会上表示，双方正在以友好协商的方式进行谈判。“我对中国与梵蒂冈的对话感到满意。”他说，“结果很好。”
“中国对我来说是梦想，”他继续说，“一个伟大的国家。我钦佩中国。我尊重中国的千年文化，它的对话和理解能力超越了其他民主制度。”
梵蒂冈多年来一直在努力改善与中国的关系，这关系曾因七十余年前共产党掌权而正式中断。目标是团结约1200万名天主教徒，这些人被分为官方、国家承认的教会和忠于罗马的地下教会。
过去的关系一直受到北京坚持独有教区命名权的阻碍，而梵蒂冈则坚持教皇有权任命最初的使徒后裔。2018年的协议试图找到一个中间立场，尽管梵蒂冈多次指出该协议中的问题，并表示这是它唯一能接受的交易。该协议是在中国加紧控制所有宗教的时候签订的，特别是对中国和伊斯兰教这两个被视为外来文化和潜在挑战共产主义权威的信仰。
方济各依然显得很乐观，并对此行结束时有机会谈论中国感到感激，他所在的亚洲地区由北京拥有极大的影响力。“我认为中国是教会的一个希望。”他补充道。
原文摘要：
Pope Francis declared Friday that China was “a promise and a hope” for the Catholic Church, offering extensive praise for Beijing at the end of a four-nation tour through Asia and again expressed hope to one day visit.
Francis’ comments, during an in-flight press conference en route home from Singapore, came as the Vatican enters into the final weeks of negotiations to renew a 2018 agreement over the contentious issue of bishop nominations.
Francis declared himself “happy” with the process, saying both sides were engaging in negotiations in a spirit of good will. “I’m happy with the dialogue with China,” he said. “The result is good.”
“China for me is an illusion, in the sense that I want to visit China,” he said. “A great country. I admire China. I respect China. It’s a country with a millennial culture, with a capacity for dialogue and understanding that goes beyond other systems of democracy.”
The Vatican has been working for years to try to improve relations with China that were officially severed over seven decades ago when the Communists came to power. The aim is to unite the country’s estimated 12 million Catholics, who were divided into an official, state-recognized church and an underground church that stayed loyal to Rome.
Relations had long been stymied over China’s insistence on its exclusive right to name bishops as a matter of national sovereignty, while the Vatican insisted on the pope’s exclusive right to name the successors of the original Apostles.
The 2018 deal sought to find a middle ground, although the Vatican has flagged repeated violations and Rome has acknowledged it was a bad deal but the only one it could get. It was signed at a time when China was tightening controls on all religions, especially Christianity and Islam, which are viewed as foreign imports and potential challengers to Communist authority.
The Holy See under Francis has gone out of its way to extend overtures to China. But its position has drawn criticism especially from American conservatives, who have accused the Vatican of selling out the faithful who have been forced underground.
Francis nevertheless was upbeat and seemed grateful for the opportunity to speak about China on his return from Asia, a region where Beijing wields so much influence.
“I think China is a promise and a hope for the church,” he added.
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