Vatican City, Jun 9, 2020 / 07:30 am (CNA).- With the Vatican’s interim deal with the Chinese government due to expire in September, an archbishop who helped to negotiate the agreement said this week that he believes it should be renewed for one or two more years.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli was instrumental in the negotiation and signing of the 2018 agreement between the Holy See and China that regularized the country’s government-appointed bishops who had been out of communion with Rome.