Vatican City, Mar 20, 2019 / 16:13 pm
As Chinese President Xi Jinping travels to Rome this week, there has been much speculation as to whether his trip will also include an unofficial visit with Pope Francis.
Ahead of the Chinese president's arrival in Italy March 21, the AP reported that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said, "Our door is always open."
"The proclamation of the Gospel in China cannot be separated from a stance of respect, esteem, and trust toward the Chinese People and their legitimate state authorities," Parolin wrote in his introduction to the book, The Church in China: A Future Yet to be Written, published this week to coincide with Xi's visit to Italy.
Parolin wrote that the provisional agreement signed by the Holy See and China in September was "not so much a point of arrival as a starting point."