STAMFORD, Connecticut, Apr. 23, 01 (CWNews.com) - A Chinese bishop, five priests, and at least a dozen laypersons were arrested by the Communist authorities during Holy Week this year, according to the US-based Cardinal Kung Foundation on Monday.
The foundation said Bishop Shi Enxiang, 79, of Yixian, Hebei province, was arrested in Beijing on Good Friday, and is being kept in an unknown location. Bishop Shi has spent about 30 years in total in jail for refusing to acknowledge government controls on the practice of religion, with his last three-year jail term ending in 1993. Authorities tried to arrest him in 1996, but failed when the bishop escaped into hiding. He remained free and in hiding until his arrest on April 13.
The others, arrested in separate incidents, include Father Li Jianbo, 34, of Hebei province, arrested in inner Mongolia on April 19; Father Lu Genjun, 29, arrested shortly before Easter in Hebei and immediately sentenced to three years in a labor camp--three other unidentified priests were reportedly arrested with him; a priest only known as Father Yin arrested in Hebei in January and sentenced to three years in a labor camp in April; Father Feng Yungxiang arrested on Good Friday in Fujian province; and Father Liao Haiqing, in his early seventies, arrested on Good Friday in Jiangxi province.
Father Liao was released, but 13 Catholic laypersons were also arrested on Good Friday in Jiangxi and are still detained.
Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said: "A Holy Mass, a prayer service, and even praying over the dying by Roman Catholics are all considered illegal and subversive activities by the Chinese government. While Christians around the world were observing the holiest week of the year, the underground Roman Catholic Church in China suffered another assault from the Chinese government."
He added, "These incidents, along with Beijing's recent behavior toward the American crew and its plane that made an emergency landing in China, should awaken the United States and its allies of China's flagrantly abusive policies toward other nations as well as its own people."
The Communist Chinese government requires Christians to worship only in state-controlled associations including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which eschews any connections to the Vatican or the Pope. Many Catholics worship in churches that, while openly loyal to the government association, secretly pledge allegiance to the Pope.