After decades of negotiations, the Vatican signed a provisional agreement with China Saturday under which Pope Francis will recognize seven bishops appointed by Beijing who were previously not accepted by church authorities.
The seven, from the state-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association, had been excommunicated by previous popes because they were not selected by the Vatican.
The controversial agreement, announced by the Vatican, also allows for the establishment of a diocese north of Beijing for the first time in more than 70 years.
China has some 12 million Catholics divided between an underground Church loyal to the Vatican and the Catholic Patriotic Association.
Beijing and the Holy See severed relations in 1951, two years after Communist party won China’s civil war, in large part over Beijing’s insistence that it must approve bishop appointments in China.
“Pope Francis hopes that, with these decisions, a new process may begin that will allow the wounds of the past to be overcome, leading to the full communion of all Chinese Catholics,” the Vatican said in statement.
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