VATICAN CITY – Despite not being chosen by the pope, the new Beijing bishop is a “very good” candidate, the Vatican said Wednesday _ further evidence of the Roman Catholic Church’s efforts to reach a compromise with China over the contentious nomination of bishops.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, said the Vatican still had not received any official word from the Chinese government about the naming of Bishop Joseph Li Shan, who was selected by a group of Chinese priests, nuns and lay people earlier this week.

“Normally, they enter into contact with the Holy See … and ask approval. We hope this occurs,” Bertone said at a news conference in Pieve di Cadore, in northern Italy.

But he said Li was a “very good, well-suited” candidate for the job. “This seems to us a positive sign,” he said.

China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the officially atheist Communist Party took power. Worship is allowed only in the government-controlled churches, which recognize the pope as a spiritual leader but appoint their own priests and bishops.

Millions of Chinese, however, belong to unofficial congregations that are not registered with the authorities.

Pope Benedict XVI sent the letter to all Catholics in China on June 30 in a bid to unite them. In it, he praised the underground faithful but urged them to reconcile with followers in the official church. At the same time, he called the government-sanctioned China Patriotic Catholic Association “incompatible” with Catholic doctrine.

The Beijing appointment had been closely watched as an early indication of the government’s reaction to Benedict’s letter. The appointment of bishops has been the main stumbling block in resuming relations; China views papal appointments as interference in its internal affairs.

Benedict did not explicitly insist on that right in his letter, taking a more conciliatory approach by saying merely that the Vatican “would desire to be completely free to appoint bishops.”

“I trust that an accord can be reached with the government,” he added.

The Vatican would like to have a formula similar to one it has with Vietnam, another communist country, where the Vatican proposes a few names and the government selects one.

The ANSA news agency quoted the deputy chairman of the Patriotic Association as saying Li’s nomination was not formalized yet, since China’s bishops had yet to approve it.

“It’s too early to speak about contacts with the Vatican,” ANSA quoted him as saying.

Calls to the Beijing Catholic Patriotic Association and China Catholic Patriotic Association rang unanswered on Wednesday.

The Vatican-affiliated missionary news agency AsiaNews said Li Shan had shown independence in his dealings with the Patriotic Association, and was admired by the faithful as a result.

Li Shan replaces Bishop Fu Tieshan, the hard-line chairman of the Patriotic Association who died in April.

In other news Wednesday, AsiaNews reported that Zhao Zhendong, bishop of Xuanhua, had died after a long illness.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)