BEIJING - Matthias Du Jiang of the diocese of Bameng (Shaanba) in Inner Mongolia was officially proclaimed bishop of the Chinese Catholic Church on Sunday April 8. He had been appointed bishop in 2004 but for six years was "underground".

That it is to say, he was one of those bishops loyal to the Vatican in Rome and not officially recognized by the government. Beijing and the Vatican have inched towards each other in recent years, working together in selecting heads of dioceses. Still the process is more about naming new bishops and less about making underground bishops - who are generally considered hostile to the government - official.

The Bameng celebration was also special because the mass was co-celebrated by Ma Yinglin, one of the few remaining bishops in China not recognized by the Vatican, who had traveled from his home city of Kunming, in southwest Yunnan province.

Ma remains a controversial figure among Chinese Catholics. He is a likely candidate to be the head the government-sponsored Catholic Patriotic Association, an organization dealing with Catholics in China but not a religious order. Ma's presence started a wave of protests among Catholics, and out of respect for these protests, he stayed out of later bishops' celebrations. Still, Ma's participation in the Bameng's mass indicated that the government was willing not only to reach out to Catholics in general but also to reconcile with the "underground" church. Beijing has allegedly even reached out to controversial Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, and there are no major difficulties in the ties.

In fact, a form of agreement on the appointment of bishops has basically been reached between the Vatican and Beijing. This was a great stumbling block in the normalization of ties and establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Holy See. Yet there could be still plenty of time before an official representative of Rome will be residing in Beijing. Now, as was the case more than a decade ago, the problem is Taiwan.

More than 10 years ago, the then Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, decided to normalize ties with the Vatican, yet the move was thwarted by its decision to canonize 120 Chinese saints on October 1, 2000. Beijing saw the move as a provocation because of the date (China's national day) and the choice of the saints - they were all martyrs killed during anti-Christian persecutions.

The new saints should have included, according to Chinese authorities, people like Matteo Ricci, Adam Schall, Ferdinand Verbiest, or Giuseppe Castiglione, Jesuits who had served Chinese emperors. Beijing suspected the selection of the saints was conducted at the suggestion of the Taiwanese clergy, who feared that the island would be politically isolated after the Holy See switched diplomatic recognition.

At the time, Taiwan's president was Chen Shui-bian, elected on an agenda in favor of an official declaration of independence from the Chinese mainland. If the Holy See switched recognition, it would have been a major blow for Chen, proving that his pro-independence agenda had taken away from Taiwan the most important government still recognizing it. Chen had to avoid this reconciliation, and according to Beijing, concocted the plot to make normalization of ties impossible - the October 1 canonizations.

Now things are complicated in a different way. Taiwan is ruled by mainland-friendly Ma Ying-jiu. Chinese President Hu Jintao has made huge strides in resolving the Taiwan issue. Yet if the Holy See were now to recognize Beijing, it would be a stab in Ma's back, proving that being friendly to Beijing is rewarded with becoming further diplomatically isolated. It then could herald an era of tough confrontation on both sides of the Taiwan straits, perhaps forfeiting all Hu's advances so far.

Therefore, if Beijing has to choose between the Catholics and Taiwan, it will certainly give up the Holy See.

However, the issue of Catholics in China is complicated. There are about 13 million in the country, and their fate is taken as an indication of Beijing's official policy towards freedom of worship in a land where many millions are turning to religion to find some solace among the earth-shattering changes of recent decades. Furthermore, their freedom is an important indication of human rights, something Beijing needs pay attention to in order to improve general ties with the West. It is not easey for Beijing to set the Catholic agenda aside. Besides, as the appointments of the new bishops shows, Beijing doesn't want to do so.

The Chinese government may then hope to keep an even keel and let ties develop naturally. But storms are gathering ahead, and ties could suffer. Some Chinese Catholics are pressing the authorities to have a congress of the Catholic Patriotic Association this autumn. The congress should choose a new leader of the association to replace Liu Bainian, who turns 80 next year.

The congress has been postponed once already at the Vatican's request, and a second deferral could be difficult - not only because Liu Bainian has long passed retirement age. Still, the congress would be full of problems. The association is not a religious body, and thus it shouldn't matter to the Vatican, argue some. Yet it has influence and power over Catholics in China, so some people in the Vatican say that the congress should take place only after an official Vatican delegate is in China to collaborate with the authorities on it.

Other problems derive from the congress. Should bishops attend? Some say absolutely not; some are more open, arguing this is not a religious issue after all. The final problem is the choice of the new head of the association. A wing of the association would like Ma Yinglin, but others say it shouldn't be the 44-year-old Ma because he is not a legitimate bishop and they prefer someone with greater age and wisdom. In all this, Beijing simply would like to not be bogged down in a controversy between different sides of Catholics which it neither understands or appreciates.

It is easy to see how this congress - deferred or not - could derail the difficult balance of relations reached so far. Beijing should make a move, but what move would not endanger the even more precious ties with Ma Ying-jiu?

In this very difficult predicament, even those as materialistic as the leaders in Beijing might pray for a miracle. Still, dubious about miracles, in Beijing they are probably wracking their brains to find the one solution that could square all of these matters. (2010-06-10 Asia Times)