A week before Chinese New Year officially start, Pope Francis sent a greeting to President Xi Jinping and has called Vatican to create better relationship with China.
"China has always been a reference point of greatness. A great country,” Pope Francis said during in an interview.
“But more than a country, a great culture, with an inexhaustible wisdom. For me, as a boy, whenever I read anything about China, it had the capacity to inspire my admiration,” he added.
Lu Kang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that China has always been sincere about improving China and Vatican’s relationship.
“We are still willing to have constructive dialogue with the Vatican based on this principle, meeting each other halfway, and keep pushing forward the development of the process of improving bilateral relations,” he added.
It has been known Beijing severed ties with the Vatican in the year 1951 after Communist Party took over the Chinese country wherein the totalitarian regime set up its own church beyond the Pope’s approval and authority.
However, Pope Francis is still optimistic about the relationship between China and Vatican be better.
"Encounter is achieved through dialogue. The true balance of peace is realized through dialogue,” he expressed.
"I believe that the Chinese people are moving forward and this is their greatness. It walks, like all populations, through lights and shadows. Looking at this past — and perhaps the fact of not having children creates a complex — it is healthy to take responsibility for one’s own path. Well, we have taken this route, something here did not work at all, so now other possibilities are opened up, “ the pope added.
