EWTN News, The Editors - The controversial provisional agreement between the Vatican and the People’s Republic of China on the appointment of bishops that was first signed in September 2018 is up for renewal again this fall, and questions abound about the wisdom of Rome’s willingness to proceed... Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state and the point man on dialogue with China, defended the accord with China’s atheistic and authoritarian communist regime earlier this month.