Pope Francis announced that starting next week, his weekly teachings at the Vatican will be translated into Mandarin, adding to the languages already used. This move coincides with the start of Advent and reflects efforts to improve Vatican-China relations.

Pope Francis announced on Wednesday that his weekly general audience teachings at the Vatican will also be translated into Mandarin starting next week.

At the Wednesday audiences, Pope Francis delivers his teachings in Italian, which are then translated and read out in English, French, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic.

"Next week, with the Advent (period starting), the Chinese translation will also be here in the audience," he said, likely referring to Mandarin, the official language of China. Relations between the Vatican and communist China have historically been strained, but Pope Francis has prioritised improving them.

In October, the Vatican and China extended an agreement regarding the appointment of Catholic bishops in the North Asian country for another four years, reflecting a new level of trust between the two parties.

The Vatican stated that the accord, initially established in 2018, addressed a decades-long division between an underground church loyal to the pope and the China-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association, which operates independently of the Holy See. It is estimated that there are 10 to 12 million Catholics in China.

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