On Monday, the Vatican marked another milestone in its relations with China. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, inaugurated the Holy See’s pavilion at the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition. The pavilion, on the theme “Live Green, Live Better”, displays precious Vatican documents on the medicinal properties of herbs and a reproduction of Wenzel Peter’s painting Adam and Eve in the Earthly Paradise.
The relationship between the Holy See and China is, of course, far from Edenic. There are still no formal diplomatic ties between the two. There haven’t been since 1951, two years after the Communist Party of China seized power. But the exhibition invitation suggests that relations have warmed since the two states signed a provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops last September.
