The Catholic Herald this week carried an interesting story about the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Church — a very controversial and confusing entity whose precise status has long been officially ambiguous. The story itself contains the hints as to why this is the case, and why ongoing negotiations over this church’s status will be quite important:

One of China’s top leaders has told Chinese Catholics that they need to promote socialism and patriotism through religion and operate “independently” of non-Chinese authorities.

Yu Zhengsheng’s speech came at the end of a meeting of China’s official Catholic church that was being closely watched by the Holy See. Yu is one of seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body. His speech could be a measure of how much Beijing is willing to yield in potential dialogue with the Holy See.

Yu called on Catholics to take decisions independently from Rome, saying: “The Church should adhere to the principles of self-administration, run religious affairs independently and guide believers to adhere to the Sinicisation path of the religion.”