We followed with enthusiasm the news about an important meeting at the Vatican about the presence of the Church in China. Following the two-day review of its China policy last January, the Holy See said it wished to "overcome misunderstandings of the past" with Beijing, which ended relations with the Vatican more than 50 years ago.
From the news:
China welcomes Vatican olive branch
(Click this to Link to BBC News)
BEIJING, China (AP) -- China's state-backed Catholic church Monday welcomed a newly announced Vatican initiative to repair ruptured relations with Beijing and said a promised letter from the pope to Chinese Catholics could be helpful.
Three times as many believers in China
AsiaNews reported that an official Chinese government-sponsored survey shows that the number of religious believers is three times that previously estimated by the government.The first substantial survey on faith conducted by two university professors and published on government media shows that Christianity is the religion that has grown the most over time.Three hundred million Chinese people now believe in a religion, according to the survey which also revealed that 31.4% of those aged 16 and above considered themselves to adhere to some religion. The data was based on research conducted on a sample of 4,500 people
Those working on the report said the religion that has seen the biggest growth is Christianity: 12% of believers, or 40 million people, declared that they were followers of Christ. In 2005, Beijing said there were 16 million Christians while there were around 10 million in the late 1990s, always according to government statistics.The average age of believers has dropped: around two-thirds of those interviewed were aged between 16 and 35 while only 9.6% were 55 years or more.
China's Guangzhou goes Gothic again(Click this Link to Catholic News)
The historic gothic Sacred Heart Cathedral in the Chinese southern city of Guangzhou reopened after two years of renovation as authorities release official figures showing that China's population of religious believers has reached 300 million, including 40 million Christians.The Cathedral is inspired by Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral and which is the only granite Gothic church in mainland China. Fr Joseph Gan Junqiu, has recently been approved by the Holy See and the Chinese government as bishop-elect of the Guangzhou diocese.
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