Five members of the underground Catholic clergy have been
arrested while trying to visit a priest recently freed from a labor camp, a
U.S.-based religious rights group said, according to Reuters.
Fathers Kang Fuliang, Chen Guozhen, Pang Guangzhao and Joseph Yin and Deacon
Wang Lijun, aged 25 to 32, were arrested in Baoding city in Hebei province on
July 1, said the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation.
They were on their way to visit Father Lu Genjun, who had just been released
after three years in a labor camp, the foundation said Saturday. It gave no
further details.
Although the Communist government says it respects religious freedom, it only
allows freedom of worship to people who belong to religious organizations which
it maintains under strict control. In 1951, it broke off relations with the
Vatican.