VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said overnight it wanted to normalise relations with Beijing, calling for "respectful and constructive dialogue" to rebuild ties severed nearly six decades ago.
In a statement following a two-day review of the Vatican's China policy, the Holy See said it wished to "overcomemisunderstandings of the past" with Beijing, which does not allow Chinese Catholics to recognise papal authority.
While Catholicism is allowed in China, a state-sanctioned "patriotic Church" with an estimated five million members does not answer to the pope and ordains its own bishops.
A clandestine Church, with some 10 million adherents, tenaciously maintains links with the Vatican.
A longstanding modus vivendi between the Holy See and Beijing - by which most of the bishops of China's official Church have been legitimised by the pope - was upset last year when Chinese state authorities went ahead with the ordination of four bishops that did not have Pope Benedict XVI's tacit approval.
Diplomatic ties between China and the Vatican have been severed since 1951, two years after Beijing's officially atheist communist government took power.
Normalisation would require the Vatican to break off ties with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.
The Vatican statement said participants expressed the desire to normalise relations at "different levels" in order to benefit the Church and work together for the good of the Chinese people and for peace in the world.
