News agency reports two Vatican officials are visiting China

Published: 2006-06-27

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Two Vatican officials, often sent as quiet envoys to countries where Catholics survive with difficulty, were visiting China in late June, reported an Italian missionary who runs a news agency focusing on Asia. Father Bernardo Cervellera, editor of AsiaNews, said June 27 that Archbishop Claudio Celli, secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, and Msgr. Gianfranco Rota Graziosi of the Vatican Secretariat of State arrived in Beijing June 25 for talks with government officials. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Vatican spokesman, said in a June 27 statement, "I have no comment to make regarding news reported by the press about contacts under way between a delegation of the Holy See and Chinese authorities." However, another Vatican official confirmed the news was true, but said the visit was meant to be secret. The daily South China Morning Post, based in Hong Kong, also reported the visit of a Vatican delegation was under way.

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