ROME (UCAN) -- Five Chinese bishops including the two Chinese cardinals were scheduled to join senior Vatican officials and Religious representatives today in the first meeting of the papal commission on the Church in China.

Pope Benedict XVI established the commission in late 2007 to study questions of major importance to the Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China.

The March 10-12 meeting will examine "the reactions" to the letter Pope Benedict sent last year to the Catholics in mainland China, the Vatican said in a statement the Holy See Press office issued on March 8. Vatican Radio also carried the statement.

The Commission for the Catholic Church in China will also "deepen the rich content of the papal document and, in the light of that, will consider the principal aspects of the life of the Church in China," the Vatican statement added.

The letter, whose impact, content and follow-up is the focus of this meeting, was the first and one of the most important fruits of the high-level summit on the Catholic Church in mainland China, called by Pope Benedict and held January 19-20, 2007, at the Vatican.

That summit proposed the pope write a letter to Catholics in mainland China. He agreed while the meeting was still in session, and signed the historic text on Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2007. The Vatican released the letter in Chinese and other languages on June 30.

The commission, which formally begins its work today, is yet another highly significant result of that same summit, which proposed the establishment of a body of this kind. The pope approved the idea and set up this new body with a mandate the Vatican has not made public.

Sources told UCA News in Rome that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, would preside at the meeting. He has just returned from a visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Pope Benedict, who has closely followed the situation of the Catholic Church in China since his election as pope on April 19, 2005, is expected to meet and address meeting participants, perhaps during the closing session, as he did at the January 2007 summit, sources said.

Members of the commission include senior officials ("the superiors") of the Roman Curia offices "that are competent in the subject matter" as well as "representatives of the Chinese episcopate and of religious orders," the Vatican statement said without giving any names.

Sources said the number of meeting participants is expected to be around 35.

Among them are Cardinals Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong and Paul Shan Kuo-hsi, retired bishop of Kaoshiung. The three other Chinese prelates scheduled to attend are Archbishop John Hung Shan-chuan of Taipei, the new president of Catholic bishops' conference in Taiwan, Bishop Joseph Lai Hung-seng of Macau and Coadjutor Bishop John Tong Hon of Hong Kong.

No one from the mainland Church is joining the meeting.

Senior Vatican officials expected to participate include Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Archbishop Ferdinando Filoni, the third-ranking official in the Vatican as sostituto, or substitute of the Secretariat of State, a former nuncio to the Philippines with good background experience on China, is also expected, as is Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states.

Other senior Vatican officials expected to take part include Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, new president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and one of the most experienced officials of the Holy See on the China question; Monsignor Pietro Parolin, the highly respected undersecretary for relations with states; and Monsignor Gianfranco Rota Graziosi. All three have been on Holy See missions to Beijing.

A particularly significant feature of this meeting is that some representatives from Religious orders that have a particular relationship to China have also been invited.

The summit will have morning and afternoon sessions each day and conclude on the evening of March 12. Since the Vatican has announced the meeting, sources say it is likely, though not certain, it will also issue a press statement at the end.

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