Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom Sam Brown-back said that the Vatican’s agreement with China on the appointment of bishops ought to be made public so that it can be evaluated.

“It certainly seems to me that it’s in everybody’s interest for the agreement to be made public so that people can appraise it and it can be subject to the light of day and people understand what the parameters of it are,” Brown-back told journalists via conference call on July 12.

The deal, reached last Sept-ember, is believed to allow both Chinese officials and the Pope have to say on which bishops are named. However, the details of the agreement have not been made public, a fact that has been widely criticized.

During a visit to Hong Kong in March, Brownback said the deal had set a poor precedent for government interference with other religious communities, including Tibetan Buddhism and other Christian denominations.