Prayer and "healthy realism" are needed to ensure progress in Vatican-Chinese relations and to allow a situation where Chinese Catholics can feel both fully Catholic and fully Chinese, said the Vatican secretary of state.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who serves as secretary of state and Pope Francis's top aide, said there are "many hopes and expectations for new developments and a new stage" in relations between the Vatican and China.
The cardinal's comments came as he gave a seminar on August 27 in Pordenone, Italy, on Cardinal Celso Costantini's efforts in the early 1900s to consolidate diplomatic ties between the Vatican and China.
