Pope Francis met on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 with priests of the ‘Congregatio Discipulorum Domini’ (Congregation of the Lord’s Disciples) from China, reported the Holy See Press Office.

The Clerical Religious Institute was founded in January of 1927 at Xuanhua, in today’s province of Hebei, by the then Cardinal Celso Costantini (1876-1958), when he was still Apostolic Delegate in China (1922-1933).

A native of Zoppola, in the province of Pordenone, the Cardinal subsequently became Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

For three years, discreet negotiations between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China have been underway. At the beginning of the summer, a delegation from Beijing came to Rome in view of finalizing an eventual agreement between the Catholic Church and the Communist Government, revealed “Eglises d’Asie” agency.