The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Vatican: Prospects for Rapprochement

‘The People’s Republic of China and the Vatican: Prospects for Rapprochement’ outlines some of the difficulties between the PRC and the Vatican. The Vatican as the state embracing the universal Roman Catholic community has, since 1949, continued advocating the appointments of bishops by the Pope and the need for bishops who perform the rite of Episcopal ordination to be in line with an apostolic succession in order to ordain subsequent bishops. It is a fact that the state laws of the PRC that have declared unlawful any religious practice that recognizes foreign authorities and religious powers outside China has not allowed this to happen.