Oops! China fails to receive pope's fly-by message over 'technical glitch'
Vatican admits to failure in communication as pontiff's words have to be resent via the Italian embassy
China’s leadership failed to receive an unprecedented message of goodwill sent by Pope Francis as he flew over the country, Vatican officials admitted, blaming technical problems for the mishap at a delicate moment in relations with Beijing.
The pope offering his blessings in a message to China’s President Xi Xinping on Thursday, taking advantage of protocol that sees him send a note to nations’ leaders as he travels through their airspace.
But the message never arrived, the pope’s spokesman Federico Lombardi said, leaving China’s embassy in Rome in the position of having to request the pontiff’s words be retransmitted.
“We didn’t know if the message had been received,” said Lombardi. “The Chinese embassy in Rome asked for information about the message because it seemed not to have arrived.”
The glitch is especially unfortunate timing as the pope was en route to South Korea for a visit squarely aimed at fuelling a new era of growth for the Catholic church in Asia, while China continues a long-running battle with the Vatican for control of its Catholic community.
It was the first time that the pope had been permitted to fly over China, with the world’s media giving extra scrutiny to the papal dispatch, which invoked “the divine blessings of peace and wellbeing on the nation”.