Church that one of its leaders may have been killed by feared security forces, BosNewsLife monitored Wednesday, May 11. Chinese authorities have reportedly denied knowing anything about the fate of 83-year-old Bishop Shi Enxian from Yixian, Hebei province, who disappeared four years ago. AsiaNews, a Catholic oriented website and other media, quoted church officials as saying his fate "might become like" bishops Fan Xueyn and Li Lifang who "died in prison."
Authorities allegedly followed Bishop Shi Enxiang since 1995 and he apparently disappeared in his niece’s home in Beijing on April 13, 2001. Eyewitnesses reportedly saw how two cars with licence plates from Xushui, Hebei province, took the bishop and drove away.
ADRESS UNKOWN
Catholics have also demanded more news about the whereabouts of 42-year-old priest Liu Deli who was apparently detained six years ago, although he was not known to have been part of the underground church. In addition there is concern about 83-year old Yao Liang, the Auxiliary Bishop of Xiwanzi, Hebei province. He was arrested March 31 and sent to "re-education" following his initial release in April.
AsiaNews said the fate of 18 other bishops and 19 priests are also a mystery. They are on a list it recently published with a petition to be sent to the Chinese government asking for the leaders’ release.
Reports about the detentions come after seven underground Catholic priests who were arrested near Beijing on 27th April, were reportedly released. The seven priests were identified as Wang Dingshan, 50, Li Qiang, 31, Liu Wenyuan, 35, from Gaocheng, Zhang Qingcai, 45, from Wuji County, Li Suchuan, 40, from Zhaoxian, Pei Zhenping, 43, from Luancheng and Yin Zhengsong, 32, from Dingzhou.
GOVERNMENT PRESSURE
Analysts have suggested that the two-step-forward-one-step-back approach by the Communist government is aimed at putting pressure on Catholic Christians following the Vatican to recognize the government backed Catholic Patriotic Association, which controls the official Church.
"It defies logic," said Joseph Kung, the President of the advocacy group Cardinal Kung Foundation in a statement to BosNewsLife recently. "How could the Chinese government on one hand proclaim to Pope Benedict XVI and the world their willingness to improve the relationship between China and the Vatican, and on the other hand keep arresting the Pope’s priests? It is quite obvious that the desire expressed by the Chinese government to improve its relationship with the Vatican is less than sincere.”
Since the election of the new Pope, China has reportedly showed a small "willingness" to improve its relationship with the Vatican, but under the condition that he stays out of its "internal affairs" and ends diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Catholic Christians are among the estimated 60 to 80 million Christians in China, who human rights group Open Doors has described as "the world’s largest single persecuted community today." (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from China and the United States)
