underground Roman Catholic Church, which refuses to recognize the Communist government as its authority.
In statements China’s Religious Affairs Office (RAO) and the Foreign Ministry suggested that all three church leaders had been held on a "voluntary basis" and officials said at least one of them had undergone "religious education."
RAO official Liu Yongqing told the well informed Asia News website that 84-year old "Mr. Zhao Zhengdong was not arrested" and explained that "our offices organizes courses for local clergy that teach our religious policy. This course began at the end of May and finished in the middle of June". Liu also specified that the bishop attended the course "voluntarily", Asia News reported, a statement consistent with other news reports monitored by BosNewsLife.
This week the Vatican Press Office had expressed its "profound pain" for the arrest of Monsignor Zhao Zhengdong, who it said was taken "into custody by police and his place of detention is not known."
The Vatican said it was also worried also by the detention of two of bishops of the underground Church, who Asia News identified as Msgr Jia Zhiguo, Bishop of Zhengding, arrested from June 13 to 18, and Msgr Leo Yaoliang, Coadujtor Bishop of Xiwanzi, held in police custody June 2 to June 12. in addition on June 13, the Trappist father,Placido Pei Ronggui, was arrested and released June 18, Asia News said.
HUMAN RIGHTS
In a statement, the Vatican said all these coercive measures were "inconceivable under the rule of law and contravened those human rights, especially that of religious freedom, which are guaranteed by numerous international documents, which include the People’s Republic of China as signatory". At least scores of other Catholic Church leaders as well as nuns monks and ordinary believers have been detained in recent months, Catholic Church officials say.
While the state backed Chinese Patriotic Church has an estimated five million members, China’s underground Catholic church has already an estimated eight million members, according to Vatican estimates. News about the apparent crackdown on Catholic comes after human rights watchdogs appealed to China last week to release over 100 evangelical church leaders who they say were arrested this month following a Communist government issued "secret directive" to launch a massive crackdown against religious groups and promote Atheism
MORE CHRISTIANS
Despite the difficulties, AsiaNews reported that even in remote area’s Chinese Christians keep the Christian faith. It said a community of 5,000 lay Catholics mainly Drung, Lisu, Nu and Tibetan ethnic minorities, were located in Gongshan Drungzu Nuzu Autonomous County in northwestern Yunnan province, where they are praying together and evangelizing. Gongshan, adjacent to Tibet Autonomous Region, is about 2,120 kilometers (about 1325 miles) southwest of Beijing. The number of churches has reportedly grown to 15 from the three established before the communists came to power in 1949.
The number of Catholics also grew from 1,000 to 5,000, thanks to the laypeople’s evangelization endeavor. French missioners served the area before 1949, Asia News quoted Father Paul Chen Kaihua of Kunming diocese as saying. Church officials and analysts believe China’s Communist government fears to lose control over the increasing number of Christians in the country, which is believed to experience the fastest church growth in the world.
