Under Pope John XXIII, the Vatican made the first attempts to re‐establish contacts with Peking, They remained inconclusive. Pope Paul VI went out of his way during his 30,000‐mile journey to East Asia and Australia in the autumn of 1970 to visit Hong Kong for a few hours. He said an outdoor mass less than 20 miles from the British colony's border with China and addressed a “message of unity and love” to Chinese everywhere.

In 1971, a Roman Catholic church in Peking that had long been closed was reopened. At present, masses are being said there in Latin for congregations composed of foreign diplomats and other foreign residents by priests who do not have contact with Rome.

The Vatican, in the missionary bulletin today, asserted that Maoist doctrine “contains some directives that are in keeping with the great moral principles of the millenary Chinese civilization and find authentic and complete expression in modern social Christian teaching.”

The study asserted “Christian reflections” were present in the thoughts of Chairman Mao.

Whereas Soviet socialism has become pragmatic and economic, the missionary bulletin said, the Maoist doctrine is “a moral socialism of thought and conduct, independent of the accidental conditions of the country's wealth or poverty.”

Present‐day China, the study noted, “is devoted to a mystique of disinterested work for others, to inspiration by justice, to exaltation of simple and frugal life, to rehabilitation of the rural masses and to a mixing of social classes.”