The Vatican has announced that the Dalai Lama will not, after all, be visiting Pope Benedict in Rome next month, as was widely reported a month ago.
As the pope’s spokesman noted, no such meeting had ever been officially announced. But in waiting an entire month to deny the reports, the Vatican effectively acknowledged that such a meeting had at least been contemplated before being ruled out.
The Chinese government quickly made it clear that it would be unhappy indeed with such encounter, coming shortly after the DL’s high-profile visits to other world capitals, including Washington, where he met with President Bush and addressed Congress.
The Vatican’s most pressing concern with regard to China, with which it has not had diplomatic relations for half a century, is the fate of the “underground” Catholic church there, which is loyal to Rome and persecuted by the government.
According to the Vatican’s AsiaNews agency, an underground priest in the province of Hebei was recently sentenced to three years in prison for organizing the consecration of a church.
