Across the planet, the Vatican has effectively established its authority across the landscape of the Roman Catholic Church. Defiance of rules and procedures is dealt with swiftly and seriously to ensure orthodoxy.In China, Catholicism has had to make due, even letting the Communist government compromise procedures that are ironclad for the big church in all other parts of the world. China is often the exception in so much of human activity. Methodically, policy must serve China. With its sheer population, the economic powerhouse cannot be ignored, even as a prime and fertile field for evangelization. So the Vatican is throttled from business-as-usual practices in China. Since 1949, when the Communist Party took control of China, the nation has been officially atheist. Official ties with the Vatican there were cut; worship was permitted only in government-controlled churches. While it let Chinese Catholics still regard the pope as their spiritual leader, the Vatican no longer could appoint priests and, more importantly, the bishops in China. Pope Benedict XVI last month wrote the government-controlled Chinese Catholic Church, asking for reconciliation. According to Reuters, Catholics make up both an above-ground church that has the sanction of the government and the underground church which answers only to Rome. The country has about 14 million four million with government-controlled churches and 10 million underground Catholics loyal to Rome.On Tuesday, Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a state entity, said he would like the pope to pay a visit to China. According to the Associated Press, Benedict did not dismiss it but he said the whole issue was complicated. I strongly hope to be able to see the pope one day here in Beijing to celebrate Mass for us Chinese, Bainian said in an interview with an Italian newspaper. The paper was told to tell the pope that Chinese Catholics pray for him always and called for the Lord to give us the grace to welcome him here among us. The pope has insisted it must be allowed to appoint its own bishops, but the government calls that interference in its national affairs. Bainian, nonetheless, said religion could never be used to interfere in Chinas internal affairs. Beijing never accepted what the church did in Poland, he said. That was in reference to the support that the Vatican, under Pope John Paul II, a native of Poland, lent to the Solidarity Movement there in the 1980s, which was instrumental in the downfall of Polish communism and a factor in its demise across Europe.Officially, China has said it wants better relations with Rome, but it has insisted that the Vatican end its diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which it contends is an illegitimate government claiming to represent China. Look for the Vatican to remain firm and patient, and China will find it is in its interests to drop its resistance to Romes full dominion over its church in China. But I doubt this pope will ever step foot there.

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