The timing of this is a little strange given that on Sunday there was an explosion at a chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas. Prayers for those effected. At least 44 dead in China chemical plant blast Associated Press | March 21, 2019 | https://www.foxnews.com/world/at-least-44-dead-in-china-chemical-plant-blast BEIJING – The local government reports the death toll in an explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China has risen to 44, with another 90 people seriously injured. Thursday's blast at the Tianjiayi Chemical plant in the city of Yancheng is China's worst industrial accident in years, with nearly 1,000 area residents moved to safety as of Friday as a precaution against leaks and additional explosions. Windows in buildings as far as about 3 miles were blown out by the force of the blast. The Yancheng city government said on its official microblog that 3,500 medical workers at 16 hospitals had been mobilized to treat the injured. China has long struggled with industrial safety. A 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the city of Tianjin killed 173 people.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/...-as-unsanitary-living-conditions-proliferate/ "Medieval" Diseases Flare as Unsanitary Living Conditions Proliferate Typhus and other infectious illnesses hit homeless communities By Anna Gorman, Kaiser Health News on March 15, 2019 Sign up for Scientific American’s free newsletters. Jennifer Millar keeps trash bags and hand sanitizer near her tent, and she regularly pours water mixed with hydrogen peroxide on the sidewalk nearby. Keeping herself and the patch of concrete she calls home clean is a top priority. But this homeless encampment off a Hollywood freeway ramp is often littered with needles and trash, and soaked in urine. Rats occasionally scamper through, and Millar fears the consequences. “I worry about all those diseases,” said Millar, 43, who said she has been homeless most of her life. Infectious diseases—some that ravaged populations in the Middle Ages—are resurging in California and around the country, and are hitting homeless populations especially hard. Los Angeles recently experienced an outbreak of typhus—a disease spread by infected fleas on rats and other animals—in downtown streets. Officials briefly closed part of City Hall after reporting that rodents had invaded the building. People in Washington state have been infected with Shigella bacteria, which is spread through feces and causes the diarrheal disease shigellosis, as well as Bartonella quintana, which spreads through body lice and causes trench fever. Hepatitis A, also spread primarily through feces, infected more than 1,000 people in Southern California in the past two years. The disease also has erupted in New Mexico, Ohio and Kentucky, primarily among people who are homeless or use drugs. Public health officials and politicians are using terms like “disaster” and “public health crisis” to describe the outbreaks, and they warn that these diseases can easily jump beyond the homeless population. “Our homeless crisis is increasingly becoming a public health crisis,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in his State of the State speech in February, citing outbreaks of hepatitis A in San Diego County, syphilis in Sonoma County and typhus in Los Angeles County. “Typhus,” he said. “A medieval disease. In California. In 2019.” The diseases have flared as the nation’s homeless population has grown in the past two years: About 553,000 people were homeless at the end of 2018, and nearly one-quarter of homeless people live in California. The diseases spread quickly and widely among people living outside or in shelters, fueled by sidewalks contaminated with human feces, crowded living conditions, weakened immune systems and limited access to health care. “The hygiene situation is just horrendous” for people living on the streets, said Dr. Glenn Lopez, a physician with St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, who treats homeless patients in Los Angeles County. “It becomes just like a Third World environment where their human feces contaminate the areas where they are eating and sleeping.” Those infectious diseases are not limited to homeless populations, Lopez warned. “Even someone who believes they are protected from these infections are not.” At least one Los Angeles city staffer said she contracted typhus in City Hall last fall. And San Diego County officials warned in 2017 that diners at a well-known restaurant were at risk of hepatitis A. There were 167 cases of typhus from Jan. 1, 2018, through Feb. 1 of this year, up from 125 in 2013 and 13 in 2008, according to the California Public Health Department. Typhus is a bacterial infection that can cause a high fever, stomach pain and chills but can be treated with antibiotics. Outbreaks are more common in overcrowded and trash-filled areas that attract rats. The recent typhus outbreak began last fall, when health officials reported clusters of the flea-borne disease in downtown Los Angeles and Compton. They also have occurred in Pasadena, where the problems are likely due to people feeding stray cats carrying fleas. Last month, the county announced another outbreak in downtown Los Angeles that infected nine people, six of whom were homeless. After city workers said they saw rodent droppings in City Hall, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson briefly shut down his office to rip up the rugs, and he also called for an investigation and more cleaning. Hepatitis A is caused by a virus usually transmitted when people come in contact with feces of infected people. Most people recover on their own, but the disease can be very serious for those with underlying liver conditions. There were 948 cases of hepatitis A in 2017 and 178 in 2018 and 2019, the state public health department said. Twenty-one people have died as a result of the 2017-18 outbreak. The infections around the country are not a surprise, given the lack of attention to housing and health care for the homeless and the dearth of bathrooms and places to wash hands, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, the health officer for Seattle and King County, Wash. “It’s a public health disaster,” he said. In his area, Duchin said, he has seen shigellosis, trench fever and skin infections among homeless populations. In New York City, where more of the homeless population lives in shelters rather than on the streets, there have not been the same outbreaks of hepatitis A and typhus, said Dr. Kelly Doran, an emergency medicine physician and assistant professor at NYU School of Medicine. But Doran said different infections occur in shelters, including tuberculosis, a disease that spreads through the air and typically infects the lungs. The diseases sometimes get the “medieval” moniker because people in that era lived in squalid conditions without clean water or sewage treatment, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine and public health at UCLA. People living on the streets or in homeless shelters are vulnerable to such outbreaks because their weakened immune systems are worsened by stress, malnutrition and sleep deprivation. Many also have mental illness and substance abuse disorders, which can make it harder for them to stay healthy or get health care. One recent February afternoon, Saban Community Clinic physician assistant Negeen Farmand walked through homeless encampments in Hollywood carrying a backpack with medical supplies. She stopped to talk to a man sweeping the sidewalks. He said he sees “everything and anything” in the gutters and hopes he doesn’t get sick. She introduced herself to a few others and asked if they had any health issues that needed checking. When she saw Millar, Farmand checked her blood pressure, asked about her asthma and urged her to come see a doctor for treatment of her hepatitis C, a viral infection spread through contaminated blood that can lead to serious liver damage. “To get these people to come into a clinic is a big thing,” she said. “A lot of them are distrustful of the health care system.” On another day, 53-year-old Karen Mitchell waited to get treated for a persistent cough by St. John’s Well Child & Family Center’s mobile health clinic. She also needed a tuberculosis test, as required by the shelter where she was living in Bellflower, Calif. Mitchell, who said she developed alcoholism after a career in pharmaceutical sales, said she has contracted pneumonia from germs from other shelter residents. “Everyone is always sick, no matter what precautions they take.” During the hepatitis A outbreak, public health officials administered widespread vaccinations, cleaned the streets with bleach and water and installed hand-washing stations and portable toilets near high concentrations of homeless people. But health officials and homeless advocates said more needs to be done, including helping people access medical and behavioral health care and affordable housing. “It really is unconscionable,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, a policy and advocacy organization. “These are all preventable diseases.”
I had German measles when I was 7 years old and in fact it was my first encounter with our heavenly mother I remember lying in bed looking at a picture hanging on the bedroom wall of our lady of lourdes and she was in the grotto I could see her so clearly through my sweat covered eyes and I could hear a whisper of quiet running water in a stream I remember telling my mum about it and it must have freaked her out because she removed the picture and told me to get some rest funny I had forgot about it until now and very rarely I hear the sound again of the running stream it is quite distinct but it always brings me back to that moment and here is the old picture
Priest attacked this morning in Montreal Canada. It sounds like he was stabbed but he is now in stable condition. Perp was apprehended. https://www.foxnews.com/world/catholic-priest-stabbed-during-televised-mass-in-canada.amp A Catholic priest was stabbed several times while leading mass on Friday morning in Montreal. Rev. Claude Grou, the rector at St. Joseph's Oratory, had just finished a reading around 8:40 am when a man rushed towards him with a knife and stabbed him in his upper body. The attack at the landmark church was captured on a livestream and television, as the mass was being broadcast to the Catholic channel Salt + Light. A suspect has already been taken into custody and will be questioned by investigators later today, according to CBC. Footage from the incident shows a tall man wearing a white baseball cap approach the altar and stab Grou as he falls to the ground. Security and what appears to be other members of the parrish then step forward, encircling the attacker, who stands with his hands at his sides. Grou quickly stood up and didn't appear in pain. Grou suffered only superficial wounds and is expected to make a full recovery. The diocese of Montreal tweeted that he was in stable condition, and that "all of our prayers are with him." Montreal's mayor, Valerie Plante, condemned the act of violence. "I am relieved to learn that the life of Father Claude Grou, Rector of the [Oratory] is out of danger and that his condition is stable," she tweeted in French. "On behalf of all Montrealers, I wish him speedy recovery."
And churches across France are being vandalized, set on fire Twelve French Churches Attacked, Vandalized in One Week
While the police and media in France say virtually nothing. In 2018 it averaged out to 2 christian churches per day vandalized in France alone. The state does not care. The media do not care. Secular humanism rules the day in France and elsewhere.
Score one for the good guys! https://www.liveaction.org/news/ohio-defunds-planned-parenthood-abortion/ Earlier this month, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling and upheld a 2016 Ohio law that rerouted approximately $1.3 million in state funding from abortion facilities (like Planned Parenthood) to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). As Live Action News previously reported, “… Planned Parenthood… successfully managed to get an injunction blocking the law, with U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett ruling that stripping the abortion giant of its taxpayer funding would cause ‘irreparable injury.'” The Sixth Circuit disagreed, with Judge Jeffrey Sutton writing, “Private organizations do not have a constitutional right to obtain governmental funding to support their activities. The state… has no obligation to pay for a woman’s abortion. Case after case establishes that a government may refuse to subsidize abortion services.” Now, Ohio has followed through with its original plan and has defunded Planned Parenthood and other abortion organizations in the state. The Associated Press reports that the Ohio Department of Health “notified recipients and contractors Thursday that it will end that funding within a month to comply with the law, unless the court delays the effect of its ruling as Planned Parenthood requested.” While Planned Parenthood continues to claim that it is one of the most important healthcare providers for women in the United States, the facts and figures prove otherwise. In truth, its patient load has decreased significantly over the past decade (700,000 patients lost since 2006), and its legitimate health care services (like cancer screenings) continue to plummet. In addition, as abortions nationally continue to drop, Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers have increased year over year — it currently holds 35% of the national market share for abortions (it committed more than 330,000, according to the most recent annual report). The abortion corporation has also been caught in numerous overbilling and fraud scandals, has been caught aiding and abetting sex traffickers and abusers, has lied to women about abortion risks and fetal development, and has been secretly videotaped revealing how its employees alter abortion procedures to obtain the most intact organs from aborted children for resale to third parties. Taxpayers overwhelmingly do not support paying for abortions and want more restrictions on abortion. In 2017, President Trump signed a bill allowing states to defund abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood. In addition, a new Title X family planning rule change spells out that there must be a “clear financial and physical separation between Title X funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning,” which means that unless Planned Parenthood complies with the changes, it stands to lose $60 million in federal funding.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/20...y-is-not-a-religion-of-peace-rejects-convert/ The Home Office has rejected the asylum application of a Christian convert from Iran who said they had been drawn to the faith by its peaceful nature, due to a Government official ruling that Christianity is not peaceful. The applicant indicated that they had converted to Christianity from Islam because of its peaceful nature, stating that “In Islam there is violence, rage and revenge. In Christianity in the contrary it is talking about peace, forgiveness and kindness.” This earned the ire of the Home Office bureaucrat or bureaucrats charged with assessing the application, the Times reports. The official cobbled together six passages from the King James Version and New Internation Version of the Old and New Testaments — such as Matthew 10:34, in which Christ proclaims he “came not to send peace, but a sword” — in an effort to prove that the applicant’s view of Christianity was wrong, and that Christian scripture is in fact “filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence”. “These examples are inconsistent with your claim that you converted to Christianity after discovering it is a ‘peaceful’ religion, as opposed to Islam which contains violence, rage and revenge,” the rejection letter to the applicant admonishes passive-aggressively; an implicit ruling that Christianity is not peaceful — certainly not relative to Islam — and indeed is so clearly not peaceful that the Home Office does not consider perceived peacefulness a credible reason for conversion. Dhimmitude: Britain Turns Away Pakistani Christian to Appease ‘Sections of the Community’, Islamist Terrorists https://t.co/xtBjC8hiFT — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 10, 2018 “I am extremely concerned that a Government department could determine the future of another human being based on such a profound misunderstanding of the texts and practices of faith communities,” commented Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham for the Church of England. “To use extracts from the Book of Revelation to argue that Christianity is a violent religion is like arguing that a Government report on the impact of Climate Change is advocating drought and flooding,” he added. The United Kingdom is, at least nominally, a Christian country, with the Queen also serving as the Supreme Governor of the established Church of England, and charged with defending the Protestant faith by her Coronation Oath. Meanwhile the Islamic Republic of Iran is, as the name would suggest, officially Islamic, with a religious cleric acting as Supreme Leader. Conversion from the state religion of Islam to Christianity in Iran is officially deemed as “apostasy” — a criminal offence which is punishable by death. Why’s HM Gov. taking a deranged (almost sarcastic) approach to life-threatening asylum cases (Muslims face death sentence for apostasy in theocratic Iran) & taking a theological view on Christianity? This has constitutional implications. Imagine making these comments about Islam — Maajid – (Mājid) [maːʤɪd] ماجد (@MaajidNawaz) March 21, 2019
Now apparently there's pure and impure Communism: Russian protesters rally against Kremlin policies Moscow (AFP) – Several thousand supporters of Russia’s Communist Party rallied in Moscow against government policies, with some attacking President Vladimir Putin who they said was personally responsible for entrenched corruption and rising prices. The Communists had called on Russians to take to the streets across the country to protest the latest raft of repressive laws and falling living standards. The Moscow rally featured both young and elderly protesters and was led by veteran Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, 74. Similar protests took place in other cities across the country. “I looked at Putin’s historical rule and realised that he has not done anything good for the country over the past 20 years,” said one of the Moscow protesters, Sergei Tereshin, blaming Putin for corruption and rising poverty. “I cannot trust such a leader,” said the 25-year-old engineer. Critics say the Kremlin is ramping up a crackdown on dissenters to counter a fall in Putin’s approval rating amid mounting economic troubles. This week Putin signed laws that allow courts to fine and briefly jail people for showing disrespect towards authorities, and to block media for publishing “fake news”. Soon after Putin was re-elected for a fourth Kremlin term last year, his government raised value-added tax and hiked the retirement age for the first time since the 1930s, sparking anger across the country. https://www.breitbart.com/news/russian-protesters-rally-against-kremlin-policies/
Israel and Hamas flirt with war again after rocket attack from Gaza strikes house near Tel Aviv By Noga Tarnopolsky | Mar 25, 2019 | 6:00 PM | Jerusalem | https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-israel-gaza-attacks-20190325-story.html In Mishmeret, north of Tel Aviv, Israeli police examine a house struck by a missile reportedly fired by militants from the Gaza Strip on March 25, 2019. (Abir Sultan / EPA/Shutterstock) Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas skated to the edge of another war Monday after a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip demolished a family home in a town north of Tel Aviv and Israel retaliated with a bombardment of its own. The rocket crashed into the home in the quiet, prosperous town of Mishmeret at dawn. The town lies beyond the area usually protected by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile systems. The Israeli army blamed Hamas, the Islamist militia that controls Gaza, and launched an extensive wave of retaliatory strikes Monday afternoon that reportedly destroyed several Hamas buildings, including the headquarters of the group’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Israeli army spokesman Ronen Manelis told the news portal Ynet: “I think that Hamas understands this is a significant strike [after] a serious incident, and ultimately, this is a price that Hamas has been due to pay for the past year.” The Joint Chamber of Resistance, an operations group including Hamas and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, issued a statement threatening to target the Israeli cities of Sderot and Netivot “with rockets if the enemy continues the violations.” A house in Sderot was later struck, although no one was injured. Nearly 200 Gazans have been killed in a weekly series of protests along the Israeli border during the last year. According to United Nations figures, more than 9,000 have been wounded. The escalation erupted two weeks before elections in Israel and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington to deliver an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and to meet with President Trump. In another step that could inflame the region, Trump formalized a statement he made via Twitter last week by declaring in an executive order Monday that the United States recognizes Israeli control of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war. Previous administrations have acceded to international law, which regards the Golan Heights as disputed and occupied territory. Trump signed the order, whose legal authority is disputed, in the White House, surrounded by Netanyahu and others who support his staunchly pro-Israel stance, including the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. Also present were the two people whom Trump has appointed to formulate a peace plan for the Middle East, son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump attorney Jason Greenblatt; their presence could further complicate their ability to appear as neutral brokers in any peace deal. Netanyahu cut short his visit after the rocket strike. He said he was returning home to “lead the people of Israel and the soldiers of Israel.” “I have a simple message for Israel’s enemies,” Netanyahu said at the White House. “We will do whatever we must do to defend our people and defend our state.” Seven people in the home in Mishmeret, including two infants, were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said. Standing by the rubble, London-born Robert Wolf, who lived in the house, told Britain’s Daily Telegraph news site that he was asleep at home with his wife, Susan; his son, daughter, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren when sirens went off and they scurried into their home’s bomb shelter. “If we hadn’t got to the bomb shelter in time I would be burying all my family,” he said. The Gazan Health Ministry reported that five people were injured in the strikes in the territory. On both sides of the border, children were released early from school and the civilian population was put on high alert. In Israel, municipal air raid shelters were opened as far north as Tel Aviv, and Ben Gurion airport, the nation’s principal international hub, announced changes in incoming flight paths. Gaza City became a ghost town, and Palestinian radio stations and Hamas television broadcast songs calling for resistance against Israel. Rockets continued to be launched toward Israel through the day, with the Israeli army identifying about 30 launches from Gaza. Sirens sounded across the Israeli south, and at least a million people prepared for a night in bomb shelters. The Israeli army reported that a family home in the southern city of Sderot was hit by a missile, with no injuries reported. That family also had sought safety in a bomb shelter. Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions have sporadically fired rockets into Israel since the 2014 war between Israeli forces and Hamas. Monday’s escalation was the ninth round of fighting in the last year. None has lasted more than 24 hours, and injuries among Israeli civilians are rare. Late Monday, Hamas television announced that Egyptian mediators had brokered a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. There was no Egyptian or Israeli confirmation, and no halt in the rocket launches or airstrikes. Netanyahu is in a tight race for reelection to a fifth term in office in balloting scheduled for April 9. Rivals from across the spectrum raced to Mishmeret on Monday, with those on the right pressuring the prime minister to act decisively against Hamas. With the anniversary this week of the border protest marches and few achievements to show for the sacrifice, Hamas faces a difficult moment of reckoning. Last week, about a thousand Gazans were arrested after hundreds took to the streets to protest continued dismal living conditions. Hamas wrested control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority 12 years ago, and the seaside enclave has since been subject to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Conditions have worsened, in part because of sanctions imposed by the Palestinian government.
FS, Wow! You are correct, this is strange. I saw that Edward Pentin had tweeted about this last night but I couldn't get the link he posted to work at that time so I never saw the video if there was one. He posted something else on this today including the full video which I will post at the bottom of this post. I don't think that Mr. Pentin received an answer as to why Pope Francis did this. I wonder if they made an announcement beforehand, I would think that they should have let everyone know in advance but it appears that the pope does let some people kiss his ring and then later he does not. From last night: From today: *** There's also this today: I wonder what would happen to say underground clergymen in China, will they be adversely effected by this?
The full video. It should start around the 51 min mark or so. I believe at 59 he begins pulling his hand away. For some reason it didn't work, just FF to around 51 mins. It seems that the religious he allows but the laity he begins to pull back from.
I felt very badly for the people who he pulled away from. I think his gesture was simply like that of Peter with Cornelius and the people of course are showing respect for the office of the pope. It is just the way in which he went about this was not graceful in the least to those who were present. It was all just very awkward.
Xi snubs the Vatican in his recent trip to Italy. Notable. https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/03/article/xi-shuns-popes-invitation-while-visiting-italy/ Heads of state coming to Italy usually visit the Pope before or after their meetings with the Italian authorities. But during his three-day stay in Rome from March 21-23, centered on Italy’s formal embrace of China’s New Silk Road strategy, Chinese President Xi Jinping carefully “ignored” such a diplomatic custom and kept away from the Vatican halls. A meeting between Xi and Pope Francis would have been of historical significance, especially after Beijing and the Holy See signed a controversial interim agreement on the selection of Chinese bishops last September. Even though experts are divided on the issue, it is likely that domestic dynamics related to church-state relations in China, as well as diplomatic considerations linked to the status of Taiwan, have dissuaded Xi from shaking hands with the Pope. For Veteran sinologist Willy Lam, Xi missed an opportunity. He told Asia Times that a picture with Pope Francis “could be good PR for the Chinese president, given the near-universal condemnation of China’s oppressive religious policy – even against the ‘official’ Catholic church.” Moreover, the Holy See appeared ready to welcome the Chinese leader. Indeed Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said on March 19 that Pope Francis was willing to exchange views with Xi. The Holy See has had no formal ties with Communist China since 1951. Episcopal appointments have always been a thorny issue in the Sino-Vatican relationship, and supporters of the Pope’s opening up to Beijing believe the provisional deal could improve the condition of the “unofficial” Chinese church, though it has no diplomatic value according to the two signatories. However, many Catholics in China and elsewhere counter that the Chinese government’s repression of underground Catholic communities has continued unabated. The unofficial Catholic church is loyal to the Pope and not recognized by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the Chinese Catholic Bishop’s Conference, which are now under the supervision of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central United Front Work Department. Divisions within the CCP? One day before Xi’s arrival in Rome, Father Bernardo Cervellera, editor of Catholic news agency AsiaNews, wrote in an editorial that if the Chinese president “does not visit the Vatican it is only because he does not want to be ‘overtaken on the left’ by ideological fringes in the United Front and the State Administration for Religious Affairs,” which oppose dialogue with the Pope and, at the same time, use religion in their internal battle against Xi. Father Sergio Ticozzi, a Hong Kong-based observer of Catholic affairs in China, was in sync with Cervellera’s position. In an interview with the South China Morning Post on March 18, he expressed doubts about a possible visit of Xi to Pope Francis because such a gesture would have been seen in China as an acceptance of foreign interference in the country’s religious policy, which is aimed at the sinicization of religions. But for Lam the idea that a domestic opposition is mounting against Xi is a fiction. “The Chinese president has been much weakened since US President Donald Trump started the new Cold War with China, but Xi is still in charge of party affairs, including religion,” he said. Ying Fuk-tsang, the director of the divinity school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is also skeptical that there are frictions within the Chinese leadership over the government’s approach to the Vatican. “I do not think there is any internal difference between Xi and the United Front on the issue of ties with the Vatican,” he said. “Xi is overseeing the ideological work within the party and the current hard-line stance against religions in China is the implementation of his new religious policy.” Ying pointed out that the provisional agreement and the negotiations between Beijing and the Holy See were still in compliance with the Chinese president’s line. The Taiwan issue The Taiwan issue also affects the Sino-Vatican dialogue, particularly now that “Xi is putting more and more pressure on the island,” Lam noted. The Holy See is likely the most prized diplomatic ally (and the only one in Europe) of Taipei, which China considers a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland at some point. After the signing of the pastoral deal, there have been rumors that the Holy See may establish full diplomatic ties with Beijing. The rupture of formal links with Taiwan is the prerequisite for China to have diplomatic relations with a country. In Xi’s calculus, a meeting with the Pope could be viewed as premature and weakening a cornerstone of the mainland’s foreign policy, which for that matter is now focused on further isolating the island internationally. According to Italian media reports, it is more likely that Pope Francis meets with Xi Jinping in China, rather than the other way around. The relations between the two sides are asymmetrical and clearly in favor of Beijing.
