Shanghai, China - Both China and the Vatican must compromise to normalize relations and end five decades of estrangement, the official Communist Party-recognized bishop of Shanghai said.
However, Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian said he didn't think ties would come about soon, pointing to core issues such as China's refusal to allow the pope to nominate bishops in China, as he does around the world.
``The pope in Rome wanted to establish diplomatic relations with other countries, including China,'' Jin told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this month at his office beside Shanghai's century-old cathedral.
``If both sides don't make some concession, normalization won't come about immediately,'' said Jin, who was imprisoned or in labor camps for 27 years on charges of being an ``international spy'' in the employ of the Vatican before reconciling with the Chinese government.
On Wednesday, the Vatican's foreign minister said establishing ties was possible, but would take ``good will and a spirit of friendship.''
``In my view there aren't insurmountable difficulties. However, you have to move with care,'' Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo said in a Vatican Radio interview after returning from an 11-day trip to Asia that did not include a stop in China.
China ordered Catholics to sever ties with the Vatican in 1951 and demands that they worship only in the officially sanctioned church. About 4 million do so, while foreign experts say up to 12 million more worship in the unofficial, or underground, church.
Upon assuming the papacy in April, Pope Benedict XVI invited countries without official ties to the Vatican to work on forming them. A Vatican diplomat said the remark was aimed at China.
China demands the Vatican first end relations with Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its territory. Jin said the Vatican was ready to do so - but not before China recognized its authority in religious matters.
``That is the obstacle,'' said Jin, who, like most clergy, was politically rehabilitated after the death of communist China's founder Mao Zedong in 1976.
The dispute over appointing bishops was a ``very delicate, delicate problem,'' he said.
While Jin controls the official church structure in Shanghai, many Catholics say the real authority belongs to another man, Joseph Fan Zhongliang, recognized as Shanghai bishop by the underground church. Fan, who reportedly suffers from Alzheimer's disease, has been under virtual house arrest for the past five years.
In a subtle but significant move, Jin said Rome and Beijing have tacitly agreed to close the schism in the Shanghai diocese by agreeing to a successor to Jin who will be formally appointed auxiliary bishop next week. Jin said the Vatican has indicated it would not recognize a successor to Fan in the underground church.
Vatican spokesmen had no immediate comment on the appointment.