(AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)
The Pope is reaching out to China.
Pope Benedict XVI made the unprecedented move of revoking 1988 Vatican regulations that had called for limiting contact with China's official clergy. Benedict called the government-sanctioned church "incompatible" with Catholic doctrine for appointing bishops without Vatican approval.
The attempt to unite the country's 12 million Catholics came in a letter translated by the Vatican into five languages, including Mandarin in both traditional and simplified characters.
But it doesn't look like it will reach the wide audience that Benedict had hoped for. Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the
state-run China Patriotic Catholic Association, said Saturday the church had no immediate plans to read
it to the faithful or distribute it.
--Ryan Pearson
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