Beijing, China - Police detained an elderly bishop from the underground Roman Catholic Church shortly after he underwent surgery in northern China's Hebei province, a US-based Catholic group said on Friday.
Police from China's religious affairs bureau took bishop Jia Zhiguo away from a hospital in Hebei's Jinzhou city on June 25, while he was 'still very sick with his catheter in place' following unspecified surgery in early June, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement.
Officials told hospital staff that Jia, 72, would be sent home but later told members of his congregation that he was sent for 'education,' the statement said.
Some local Catholics believed that Jia was taken away because a delegation from the Vatican was believed to be holding talks in Beijing at that time.
During sensitive anniversaries or visits by foreign dignitaries, police and officials often keep controversial religious figures, dissidents and other critics of the ruling Communist Party away from public view.
Those deemed likely to give negative views of the government are normally kept under house arrest or sent to police-run hotels or short-term detention centres.
But friends had heard nothing of Jia since his arrest, even though the Vatican officials are believed to have left China, the foundation said.
'He is still in detention and his whereabouts are unknown,' the statement said.
Foundation president Joseph Kung said the continuing lack of religious freedom in China raised questions over its suitability to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
'To kick a person out of a hospital and send him away for detention with his catheter still in place and without adequate medical care is obviously naked evidence of total violation of human rights in China,' Kung said.
'Once again I urge the [International] Olympic Committee to consider cancelling the Games in China in order to preserve their good name and spirit,' he said.
Jia, who has previously spent about 20 years in prison, was ordained as a priest in 1980.
He has been detained at least nine times in the past two years, the foundation said.
China has an estimated 4 million members of its state-supervised Catholic churches, with activists estimating that at least double that number attend masses in underground Catholic churches that are loyal to the Vatican.