Letter from China:A large framed blessing from Pope Benedict hangs in the comfortable meeting room-cum-pantry. "Blessings to J B Jiang and staff of Hebei Faith Press." The blessing is not hidden when government officials come, says Fr J B Jiang, who runs Jinde, a Catholic charity in Shijiazhuang, the bland capital of Hebei province in northeast China.
A charismatic character with large- framed glasses and an infectious sense of humour, Fr Jiang is tired of the "confrontational" media stories about the Vatican's struggles with China's government over who is entitled to appoint Catholic bishops (the Holy See doesn't have diplomatic relations with Beijing). With a sense of pragmatism that is very Chinese, the 45-year-old priest has been building up his flock by courting and not confronting China's officially atheist government.
Jinde (the name was chosen in honour of a revered Chinese bishop) has taken up issues about which the national government publicly worries in its renewed preoccupation with the widening gap between rich and poor.
Fr Jiang and 20 full-time staff help poor families to send their children to school, offering money, books and clothes.
Jinde also deliver supplies to victims of China's frequent natural disasters.
Fr Jiang's methods are very modern, almost corporate. To raise funds Jinde booked a ballroom in one of Shijiazhuang's finest hotels and invited the city's Communist Party bosses along to its Christmas gala charity dinner last year.
Photos from the event published in local newspapers show Catholic priests in Roman collars posing with Communist Party officials. Wearing a red rose in his lapel, one of the evening's most munificent benefactors was a local real estate developer and party member.
Last year Jinde took advantage of a new openness towards non- governmental organisations in China to register as a non-profit foundation. Yet while the organisation is now free to solicit donations, it is not permitted to give donors receipts for tax deductions. Lucrative corporate donations are thus harder to come by. "The government fears, they don't want you to be too strong," says Fr Jiang.
The government's reluctance may also be due to fears of charities being established for money laundering, an understandable worry in a cash-heavy economy. Yet Jinde's good deeds, and the positive coverage it has generated, has helped build bridges to local government in Hebei, the Catholic heartland of China.
One million believers here are administered by 11 dioceses. A sign of government approval perhaps, Fr Jiang receives doctoral students from state universities and research bodies, seeking his views on China's nascent non-profit sector.
Jinde is run from office beside the largest seminary in the province, from which 20 priests will be ordained this year.
Like the pope's blessing in the charity's office, the seminary building is a clear nod to Rome. Nondescript office blocks housing the classrooms adjoin a mass concrete copy of a Gothic European church whose steeples can be seen for miles.
Yet for all the symbolism, Fr Jiang and the four priests who live in the spacious single-storey Jinde building are answerable to the Chinese state before they are servants of the pope.
Bishops and priests must abide by the rules set by the Religious Affair Bureau. Despite much speculation about an imminent rapprochement, the Vatican and China don't have diplomatic relations and all contact with Rome must be reported to officials.
There are many signs of pragmatism on both sides. Fr Jiang and his flock pray for the pope at a Mass in the seminary every morning at 6.30am.
Yet when Catholic teaching and government policy clash, particularly on family planning, Jinde is flexible. In its Aids awareness work in Hebei villages, Jinde encourages the use of condoms. In other ways Jinde promotes Catholic teaching, training clergy in doctrine and media relations.
A press established by Fr Jiang 15 years ago produces a newspaper and Catholic pamphlets which are distributed throughout Hebei.
In a sign perhaps that Fr Jiang's populist strategy is working, his Hebei Faith newspaper will soon be published every week, rather than every 10 days.
There are limits though to the church's growth. Few priests were ordained in China during the decades of orthodoxy. "Priests are either in their eighties or they are very young," says Fr Jiang, one of the first priests ordained when China began to reform in the early 1980s.
Other obstacles to Jinde's growth are mundane. The organisation wants to move to a new building, "if we can convince the city government to waive the land tax for us, because it's very high for that building". The church is not immune from other problems facing the economy. Finding good quality staff to manage programmes has been a challenge.
There's plenty of need for charity in China today, says Fr Jiang. Jinde will assist the poor by convincing China's new rich of their moral obligations.
"Rich people in China don't have the same sense of social responsibility as people in Europe and the US who are brought up with Christian values of giving to the poor. We must get it into their mind, the church must preach and give witness."