Five years later after being first incarcerated, Shanghai’s Bishop Ma is still under house arrest. Ordinations are happening without him. Four priests were ordained in Shanghai Diocese last week. This is the first ordination since Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian died in 2013 — but most priests in the diocese avoided attending the ceremony. Read more
Posts Tagged ‘China’
Police raid underground Catholic church
Thursday, May 4th, 2017An underground Catholic church in China has been disrupted by police to prevent “illegal religious activity”. They ransacked the church and attempted to arrest the priest and the lay preacher. Read more
Pope Francis could “sell out” China’s underground Catholic church
Thursday, February 23rd, 2017
Pope Francis could “sell out” China’s underground Catholic church, according to Emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen. Hong Kong-based 85 year old Zen, who is the is China’s highest ranking prelate, said China’s communist rulers want “total surrender” from the Church. Pope Francis “is really naïve” and “doesn’t know the Chinese communists,” he said. “The people around Read more
Human organ trafficking causes row
Thursday, February 16th, 2017
Illegal human organ trafficking caused a row at a conference at the Vatican earlier this month. Participants challenged the representatives from China to allow independent scrutiny to ensure it is no longer using organs from executed prisoners. In return, China proposed that the World Health Organization (WHO) form a global task force to help crackdown Read more
Hopeful signs suggest Vatican and Beijing may meet half-way
Monday, February 13th, 2017
Hopeful signs suggest the Vatican and Beijing may meet half-way on who has the right to select and appoint mainland China’s bishops. Just who should be entitled to choose bishops has been a stumbling block between the Vatican and mainland China since 1951. Cardinal John Tong, who is the head of the Catholic church in Read more
Bishop helps with ordination, concelebrates mass despite being excommunicated
Tuesday, December 6th, 2016A Bishop who has been excommunicated gave “illegitimate help” and concelebrated the Eucharist at a new bishop’s ordination last week. Lei Shiyin, the Chinese- government-backed bishop of Leshan in Sichuan province, was ordained in China in June 2011 without Rome’s blessing. He was excommunicated for this. The Vatican is concerned Lei’s role in last week’s Read more
Forty-one baptisms at Chinese church’s 300-year anniversary celebrations
Friday, October 14th, 2016Forty-one baptisms were included in a Chinese Catholic church’s 300-year anniversary celebrations last week. Thousands of people attended St Francis Cathedral of Xi’an in China’s Shaanxi province four days of celebrations. The celebrations included music, lectures, a cultural show, the installation of a relic of St Francis of Assisi and the unveiling of a tablet Read more
Religious gatherings forbidden to sing hymns and pray
Tuesday, October 4th, 2016
Religious gatherings must stop in parts of China. House churches where members meet in private houses are targeted. The ban has closed house churches in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Anhui and Henan provinces recently. The latest ban has closed a house church in Sichuan province. It has to stop meeting under rules that govern religious gatherings. This is because Read more
China clamping down on religions
Friday, September 23rd, 2016
Last month China’s, State Council released a draft of the new ‘Regulations on Religious Affairs.’ It is a revision of the 2005 law of the same name. When the two laws are placed side by side, the consistent trends, and the new directions to China’s religious policy quickly emerge: greater control and regulation. Religious scholars Read more
Don’t surrender to China, Cardinal Zen tells Vatican
Friday, August 12th, 2016
Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, an Emeritus Cardinal from China, has warned the Vatican that allowing the Chinese government to appoint Catholic bishops would mean “surrender”. He, made the comment on Tuesday following an announcement by the current bishop, John Tong Hon, that the Vatican and the Chinese government are in dialogue over the appointment of bishops. Read more