The pontiff and the party

NOT long after a puff of white smoke appeared over the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 14th 2013 and Xi Jinping assumed the presidency of China, he exchanged congratulatory messages with another world leader chosen just hours earlier by a different but equally opaque, arcane and undemocratic procedure: Pope Francis. The pope tried to send Mr Xi another message this month—a telegram of greeting as he flew over China on his way to Seoul, for his first visit as pontiff to Asia. A technical gremlin intervened. But these little courtesies, and China’s friendly gesture in allowing his aeroplane (unlike a predecessor’s in 1989) to use Chinese airspace, had already sparked hopes that relations between China and the Vatican, broken in 1951, might be mended. Then, at a mass for Asian bishops in Haemi, South Korea, on August 17th Francis called for a dialogue with Asian countries “with whom the Holy See does not yet enjoy a full relationship”. On his way back he said: “Do I want to go to China? Of course, even tomorrow…I have prayed a lot for the beautiful and noble Chinese people.”

Reconciliation is an ambitious aim: the forces keeping the church and China apart are still potent. But so are those pushing them together. As for any large multinational concern, Asia is the biggest potential growth area for the Catholic church, and China is perhaps the biggest of all. The country already has an estimated 17m Catholics, more than anywhere in Asia apart from the Philippines and India. For Francis in particular, the first pope from the Jesuit order, China’s historical significance looms large. Francis Xavier, a contemporary of the Jesuits’ founder, Ignatius Loyola, planned to go to China in 1552, arguing that if it accepted Christianity, other countries influenced by Confucianism would follow suit. Xavier died before he reached the mainland, but 30 years later another Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, landed in Macau, mastered Chinese and went on to establish an influential Jesuit mission and to become an adviser to the emperor.