--- - Pope Benedict reached out to communist China on Wednesday at an unprecedented concert by its national orchestra in the Vatican that the Church hopes can help end decades of icy relations with Beijing.
The China Philharmonic Orchestra played Mozart's "Requiem" and Chinese folk songs along with the Shanghai Opera House Chorus in the Vatican's packed audience hall.
The German pope appeared happy at the concert of European religious music by the orchestra of an officially atheist state that has ridiculed the papacy in the past.
