The decision by the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, first reported by America, the Jesuit magazine, is the latest sign of tension in the already strained relations between China and the Holy See.

Flying to Mongolia on Aug 31 for his four-day visit, Francis issued a telegram while in Chinese airspace to the country's president, Xi Jinping: "Assuring you of my prayers for the wellbeing of the nation, I invoke upon all of you the divine blessings of unity and peace," the pope wrote.

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"Visit Vietnam, Papa," some in the group shouted as the pope was driven in a golf cart past a crowd of about 2,000 people of various nationalities on the grounds of the Catholic cathedral in Ulaanbaatar on Saturday.

Vietnam broke off relations with the Vatican after the communists took over the reunited country at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The authorities then viewed the Catholic Church in Vietnam as having been too close to the former colonial power, France.

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In an address to bishops, priests, missionaries and pastoral workers, he said Jesus gave no political mandate to his apostles but told them to alleviate the sufferings of a "wounded humanity" through faith.

"For this reason, governments and secular institutions have nothing to fear from the Church's work of evangelisation, for she has no political agenda to advance but is sustained by the quiet power of God's grace and a message of mercy and truth, which is meant to promote the good of all," he said.

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