China's Detained Bishop Ma 'Given Political Lessons'

BBC ^ | 12/24/13 | John Sudworth

[marshmallow]

As prisons go, it's a relatively pleasant one.

The Sheshan seminary can be found on a quiet leafy lane that could just as well be in Tuscany as its true location, the outskirts of Shanghai.

There is no barbed wire in sight and no guards, just a solitary, rather friendly watchman on the front gate.

Nonetheless it is, as our inquiries confirm, being used for the effective confinement of China's missing bishop, Thaddeus Ma Daqin.

Friends of Bishop Ma whom I spoke to told me that he does enjoy certain limited freedoms.

He can get permission to come and go from the seminary, they said, but not to leave the wider Shanghai area.

And, as his followers will know, he's been allowed to keep his internet blog updated, although most of the postings are simple, biblical quotes that shed little light on his well-being.

But while he may not be shackled to his bed, his enforced "retreat" continues and, after almost 18 months, the authorities have still not finished with him.

Bishop Ma, we learnt, is being sent to political lessons - communist indoctrination by any other name - three times a week.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Bishop Ma, we learnt, is being sent to political lessons - communist indoctrination by any other name - three times a week.

It's like being in a public school!

But seriously, sorry to hear this.

[Mrs. Don-o]

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With Common Core, it's like being in a Catholic School.

:o/

American Catholic Patriotic Association.