Pope appoints Hong Kong priest to Vatican post

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Hong Kong theologian Savio Hon Tai-Fai to a top post in the Church’s missionary agency in a move seen in the Vatican as a key for improving ties with China.

The Salesian priest will be number two at the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Vatican said in a statement.

Fr Hon is a member of the Salesian order in China and translated the Catechism of the Catholic Church into Chinese.

The appointment will open “a path full of hope” for Chinese Christians” and “bring East and West closer together,” French cardinal Roger Etchegaray told I.Media news agency, saying the move was “a positive sign”.

Relations between China and the Vatican are very tense at the moment.

China this week said the Vatican was “imprudent” for criticising China’s state-sanctioned church, which is not recognised by the pope.

The Vatican has said appointments by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association had ­“unilaterally damaged the dialogue and climate of trust” with Beijing.

The Vatican and China have not had formal diplomatic ties since 1951, when the Holy See angered Mao Zedong’s Communist government by recognising the Nationalist Chinese regime as the legitimate government of China.