Chief Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said Beijing, which has had difficult relations with the Vatican over the years, had made it clear in preliminary contacts that travel requests would be denied.

Bishops from Macao and Hong Kong, regions with a degree of autonomy from Beijing, will attend the month-long synod, which starts on Sunday.

“(There were) talks with the Chinese authorities to see if other bishops from mainland China could come.

It was clear that there would be no agreement and they won’t come,” Lombardi said.

China’s communist government does not allow its Catholics to recognize the Pope’s authority and forces them to be members of a state-backed Catholic organization.

China’s 8 to 12 million Catholics are split between the officially approved church and an “underground” one loyal to the Pope.

The lack of participation by the mainland bishops came as a surprise because there had been signs of an improvement in relations this year.

A bishop from Hong Kong represented Pope Benedict at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in August and in May China’s national orchestra played for the Pope at an unprecedented concert in the Vatican.

Benedict has made improving relations with China a main goal of his pontificate and hopes diplomatic ties can be restored.

China says before restoring ties, broken off two years after the 1949 Communist takeover, the Vatican must sever relations with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.

The synod, at which the bishops will be discussing scripture, will see a first when Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen becomes the first Jew to address such a Vatican gathering.

The rabbi of Haifa, Israel, will lead a one-day discussion of Jewish interpretation of the Scriptures on Oct. 6.

In an event related to the synod, the Pope will be the first of 1,200 people to take part in a non-stop reading of the Bible expected to last a week and be broadcast on state television RAI. The Pope will read from the book of Genesis.

Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo di Segni, had been expected to read immediately after the Pope but pulled out of the event last month saying it had become “too Catholic.”

All 73 books of the Catholic edition of the Bible will be read. Each speaker will read for about 5-8 minutes.

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