POPE Benedict reached out to communist China yesterday at an unprecedented concert by its national orchestra in the Vatican that the Church hopes can help to end decades of icy relations with Beijing.
The China Philharmonic Orchestra played Mozart's Requiem and Chinese folk songs, along with the Shanghai Opera House Chorus, in the Vatican's packed audience hall.
The German Pope appeared happy at the concert of European religious music by the or
chestra of an officially atheist state that has ridiculed the papacy in the past.
In his address at the end of the first part of the concert, the Pope was full of praise for the Chinese people and held out the hope that music could succeed where diplomacy has failed.
"Music, and art in general, can serve as a privileged instrument for encounter and reciprocal knowledge and esteem between different populations and cultures," said the Pope, who also managed a few words of thanks in Chinese.
Benedict has made improving relations with Beijing a major goal of his pontificate.
He issued an open letter in June saying he sought to restore full diplomatic ties with China that were severed two years after the 1949 communist takeover. Catholics in China are split between those who belong to a state-backed Church, which is not recognised by Rome, and an underground Church whose members are loyal to the Vatican.
It was to these faithful that the Pope sent a particular message.
"In greeting you this evening, dear Chinese artists, the Pope intends to reach out to your entire people, with a special thought for those of your fellow citizens who share faith in Jesus and are united through a particular spiritual bond with the Successor of Peter," he said.
In what appeared to be a message to China's leaders that they had nothing to fear by better relations, the Pope said the Vatican was a place "where people from all over the world often meet, with their own personal stories and their own culture, all of them welcomed with esteem and affection".
The full article contains 352 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
