Pope praises Mongolia as China shuns history

The Pope's visit to Mongolia sent clear signs of friendship to Beijing and President Xi Jinping but signs from Beijing were not encouraging

Transcript

00:00 While Pope Francis praised the great history of the Mongolian people during his historic

00:06 trip to Ulaanbaatar, over the Chinese border that same history was being removed from bookstores.

00:13 The authorities in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region ordered the withdrawal of

00:17 a 2004 book entitled "General History of the Mongols" describing it as an example of historical

00:25 nihilism. Beijing also prevented Chinese Catholics from going to the Pope in Mongolia, but the

00:32 Pope sent messages of warm friendship towards Beijing.

00:39 Some of the decisions by Beijing around making bishop appointments without consulting the

00:47 Vatican, of course the arrangement is that Beijing, from what we understand the arrangement

00:55 to be, is that Beijing is able to select candidates to be bishops and the Pope ratifies them.

01:07 The Catholic Church is increasingly present in Asia, in Hong Kong and in Taiwan, and both

01:12 are areas which are observed with great attention by the USA.

01:18 Trump administration's criticism of the Vatican, with Biden it's much calmer now, but I would

01:26 say that there is definitely a difference in approach. You have to remember the Pope

01:33 does not see himself as the chaplain to the West, he is leading a global church.

01:39 [SWOOSH]