It would not be a tough decision for the Holy See, Taiwan’s only ally in Europe, to switch diplomatic recognition to China, but the timing is not ripe, diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks on Aug. 30 showed.
A cable dated April 24, 2009, quotes Holy See Ministry of Foreign Affairs Country Director for China Monsignor Gianfranco -Rota-Graziosi as saying that “the Vatican would make alternative arrangements short of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, if this would improve ties with Beijing or religious freedom in the mainland.”
“For the Vatican, Rota said, diplomatic relations are a means to promote religious freedom, not/not [sic] an end to themselves. The goal, he added, is to create space for the Church to operate free of -government interference,” the cable says.
The senior Vatican official made the point to Cartin Noyes, the then-charge d’affaires of the US embassy in the Vatican on April 22, 2009.
Rota had said that it was “common knowledge: the Holy See would downgrade its relationship with Taiwan ‘overnight’ with the right word from Beijing,” as recorded in a cable dated Nov 24, 2006, originating from the US -embassy in the Vatican.
Noyes said that Rota, having covered China at the Holy See’s Secretariat of State for 19 years, “was not optimistic current PRC [People’s Republic of China] authorities would relinquish their power over religious groups.”
Even though Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) appears to be more open than his predecessor, Jiang Zemin (江澤民), “he does not seem to be as influential — and so not able to push through a rapprochement with the Church,” he said.
Another cable dated Feb. 4, 2009, from the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, quotes Guangzhou’s Bishop Joseph Gan as saying that the issue of Taiwan-Vatican relations was a relatively easy one to work out.
The issues of Taiwan-Vatican relations and the recognition and ordination of bishops could be resolved “in a day.”
“But religious freedom was a far more contentious, indeed potentially irreconcilable matter,” the cable quotes Gan as saying.
Over the years, the Chinese government has continued to insist that the Holy See break diplomatic relations with Taiwan before it will discuss control over the appointment of bishops, what it described as two main obstacles for advancing its relationship with the Vatican, but the Holy See wants it the other way around.
A cable dated Jan. 29 last year shows that US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had asked overseas posts to provide information about any possible change in the triangular relationship between Beijing, the Holy See and Taiwan after China expressed willingness to permit Caritas’ charity work in the country.
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