Pompeo arrives in Rome amid rift with Vatican

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Rome on Wednesday amid a rift with the Vatican over relations with China.

The Vatican on Tuesday answered its critics and defended its pursuit of an extended agreement with China on bishop nominations, acknowledging difficulties but insisting the effort had achieved limited, positive results.

Pompeo this month wrote a harsh critique of the Vatican’s 2018 accord with China and suggested the Vatican had compromised its moral authority by signing it. Pompeo is scheduled to headline a religious liberty conference on Wednesday with the Vatican secretary of state and foreign minister, two architects of the deal.

The 2018 accord was aimed at uniting the Catholic flock in China, which is divided between an official church recognized and regulated by the Beijing government, and an underground church that has been loyal to Rome.

The agreement, which included a process for nominating new bishops and regularizing the status of seven bishops who weren’t recognized by Rome, was intended as a first step toward thawing decades of estrangement between China and the Vatican.

Critics of the accord, including the retired archbishop of Hong Kong, some underground faithful in China and conservative Catholics elsewhere, accused the Vatican of betraying Catholics in China who for decades refused to join the state-sanctioned church.

Pompeo criticized the accord in an essay published in the conservative ecumenical magazine First Things, echoing the Trump administration’s overall criticism of Beijing that has grown amid the coronavirus pandemic in an election year.

Noting that the deal is up for renewal when it expires next month, Pompeo wrote: “Now more than ever, the Chinese people need the Vatican’s moral witness and authority in support of China’s religious believers.”

In its first official response to such criticism, Vatican editorial director Andrea Tornielli recalled that the accord only covers bishop nominations, and did not enter into political or diplomatic relations with China.

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