THE plight of seven detained bishops of the underground Roman Catholic Church in China, at least one of whom is gravely ill, has prompted secret negotiations between the Vatican and the Chinese.

The men, most of them 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 were disclosed by Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, who has watched with alarm as recent moves to reconcile the Vatican with China have turned into a strident confrontation.

The breach came when Chinese officials ordered the appointment of three bishops not approved by Rome, wrecking months of patient diplomacy. The stage is now set for a clash in which the Catholic clergy of China face their greatest danger for many years.

Zen said in an interview last week that envoys from Rome were in Beijing for closed-door talks, despite the mutual public recriminations, to try to prevent things getting worse for priests and bishops loyal to the Pope.

There is growing concern for the welfare of one of them, 89-year-old Bishop Lin Xili, of the city of Wenzhou, which has a strong Christian community.

Reports reaching exiled Chinese Catholics say he is under guard in hospital at an undisclosed location, can only take liquid and is partly paralysed.

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 them was seen in a hospital but then he disappeared.”

The two bishops, 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.

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.

Zen said the persecution of Catholics in China had moved the Vatican to try to reach an accord that would relieve the suffering of believers.

“There was a very optimistic feeling after the death of Pope John Paul II and the installation of the new pope,” he said.

The Italian government was approached to grant visas to cadres from China’s Religious Affairs Bureau and from the state security apparatus.

Silvio Berlusconi, then the prime minister, approved. The delegation was whisked to Rome, then, on the instructions of Pope Benedict XVI, invited into the inner sanctum of the church’s city-state. “They were received very kindly and given a privileged tour of the Vatican and of the Sistine chapel one Sunday,” said Zen.

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