Hong Kong, China - THE plight of seven detained bishops affiliated to the underground Catholic Church in China, at least one of whom is gravely ill, has prompted secret negotiations between the Vatican and the Chinese.
The bishops, mostly frail and elderly, are political hostages in a dispute half-a-century old over the Pope's right to appoint bishops in China and the Vatican's recognition of Taiwan.
The talks have been disclosed by Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, who has watched with alarm as moves to reconcile the Vatican with China have turned into a confrontation.
The breach came when Chinese officials ordered the appointment of three bishops not approved by Rome, wrecking months of diplomacy and leaving China's Catholic clergy facing their greatest danger for years.
Cardinal Zen said last week that envoys from Rome were in Beijing for closed-door talks, despite the mutual public recriminations, to prevent the situation getting worse for priests and bishops loyal to the Pope.
Concerns were growing for the welfare of Bishop Lin Xili, 89, of the city of Wenzhou, which has a strong Christian community.
Reports reaching exiled Chinese Catholics say he is under guard in hospital, can only take liquid and is partly paralysed.
Cardinal Zen said two bishops appointed to the rural Christian stronghold of Baoding, in central Hebei province, had vanished more than six years ago.
"They were taken away and now we don't even know where they are," he said. "One of themwas seen in a hospital but then he disappeared."
The pair, Su Zhimin and An Shuxin, were on a list of seven detained bishops presented in testimony to the US Congress by the Cardinal Kung Foundation, an exile group that campaigns for religious freedom in China.
Bishop Su's crime, in the view of the Chinese authorities, seems to be that he met Christopher Smith, a visiting US congressman, in 1994.
"All of the approximately 40 underground bishops in China are either arrested and now in jail, or under house arrest, or in hiding, or on the run, or simply have disappeared," said Joseph Kung, a foundation spokesman.
Cardinal Zen said the persecution of Catholics in China had moved the Vatican to try to reach an accord.
Italy's Government was approached to grant visas to officials from China's Religious Affairs Bureau and the state security apparatus. Then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi approved.
The delegation was whisked to Rome and then, on the instructions of Pope Benedict XVI, invited into the inner sanctum of the church's city-state.
Within months, senior clergy in Rome were talking of a grand bargain that would see the Vatican transfer its embassy from Taipei to Beijing and a cordial agreement with China allowing Catholics to profess obedience to the Pope.
However, as the secret diplomacy unfolded, it caused panic among the legions of Chinese officials whose power and status depend on the continued existence of a state bureaucracy to control religion.
An agreement posed a direct threat to the Patriotic Association, set up on orders from Mao Tse-tung in the 1950s as the only permitted national church for Chinese Catholics.
Anthony Liu Bainian, its vice-chairman, warned Chinese leaders that allowing the Pope to appoint bishops would lead to the Catholic Church becoming the vanguard of anti-communist dissent, as it was in Poland.
The three ordinations in defiance of Rome thus served as a definitive statement of the party's resolve.
Since then, China's position has hardened. Xinhua, the state news agency, said the development of Catholicism in China "called for the self-selection and ordination of bishops".
Liu Jianchao, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said: "The Vatican's criticism of the Chinese Catholic Church was unfounded and disregarded history and reality." It must cut its link with Taiwan and "should not interfere in China's internal affairs", he said.
Cardinal Zen said Chinese leaders did not want to face up to the contradictions in their society. "For us it is a real mystery how they can open the market and then be so backward in their religious policy," he said.
"They are afraid of anything they cannot control, and so they even try to control consciences. But that's impossible."