Free Republic

I recap some of the panels at the Heart for Muslims conference, discuss the cost of discipleship, and describe some of the practical tips for evangelizing people from a Muslim background.

The 62-year-old Chinese shopkeeper had waited nearly his entire adult life to see his dream of building a church come true — a brick house with a sunny courtyard and spacious hall with room for 200 believers. But in March, about a dozen police officers and local officials suddenly showed up at the church on his property and made the frightened congregants disperse. They ordered that the cross, a painting of the Last Supper and Bible verse calligraphy be taken down. And they demanded that all services stop until each person along with the church itself was registered with the...

<p>SHANGHAI — In a trendy coffee shop in Shanghai’s glittering financial district, five people cram into a tiny, dimly lit back room with two tables. By day, these five are white-collar workers, eagerly climbing the corporate ladder as China’s economy booms. By night, once a week, they’re huddled over their Bibles.</p>

Many of China's churches are overflowing, as the number of Christians in the country multiplies. In the past, repression drove people to convert - is the cause now rampant capitalism? It is impossible to say how many Christians there are in China today, but no-one denies the numbers are exploding. The government says 25 million, 18 million Protestants and six million Catholics. Independent estimates all agree this is a vast underestimate. A conservative figure is 60 million. There are already more Chinese at church on a Sunday than in the whole of Europe. The new converts can be found from...

The archbishop emeritus of Hong Kong says the Pope’s Letter has marked a new chapter in the life of the Church in China. But the criteria established by the pontiff regarding religious freedom are being watered down and rendered ambiguous. He fears a slide towards an era of comprise, in which the many efforts towards the Church in China are being made in vain. Religious freedom is more important that diplomatic relations. Today Beijing seems less interested in having relations with the Holy See, thanks to a relaxing in relations with Taiwan. Hong Kong (AsiaNews) – In an impassioned...

"They installed cameras at the front door of our church," a foreign friend recently explained to me. "We have to check the passports of every churchgoer who looks Asian otherwise we will receive a call from the local police on Monday morning." My acquaintance was telling me about the house church that he attends in a moderately sized city in China. Recently, the church leadership decided to register the fellowship with the local government in order to comply with Chinese law. Religious gatherings that are not approved by the local government are illegal in China. Chinese people are not permitted...

Rome (AsiaNews) – Police of Pingtan (Fujian) have destroyed a church in Yutouchang village and have sworn to demolish another in a neighbouring village. Around 500 policemen and local officials appeared at 8am (local time) on 1 September to destroy a church of the unofficial community of Fujian. The church stood in Yutouchang village on the islet of Pingtang off Fuzhou (Fujian). For some time, the island, not far from the Chinese coast, has hosted at least 10,000 unofficial Catholics. AsiaNews sources in China revealed that the police arrived with bulldozers to destroy the building – illegal according to Chinese...

The Cardinal Kung Foundation Remembering Archbishop TANG Yee-Ming, SJ Date Published: Summer 1995 A devoted servant of the Church and a symbol of the suffering Roman Catholic Church in China, His Excellency Most Reverend Archbishop Dominic TANG Yee-Ming, S.J., the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canton in Guangzhou province, China, died of pneumonia on Tuesday, June 27, 1995 at 1:40 p.m. at St. Joseph Medical Center, Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A. He was 87 years old. Born in Hong Kong in a devout Catholic family, Archbishop Tang entered the Jesuit novitiate in Spain in August 1930. He pursued his theological studies in Shanghai...

USCIRF to release "Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung": Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion in North Korea At Capitol Hill press conference with Congressional MembersFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENovember 14, 2005Contact: Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27 WASHINGTON ? The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will be joined tomorrow by Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) for the release of the USCIRF study “Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung”:  Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion in North Korea at an on-the-record...

ROME (AP) - Two priests from China's underground Catholic Church have been detained, a Vatican-affiliated missionary news agency reported. The two had reportedly just given a rare interview to a foreign journalist. The AsiaNews missionary agency said Friday that the Revs. Shao Zhumin and Paul Jiang Sunian, from the underground church in Wenzhou on China's southeast coast, were detained Thursday after celebrating Mass. The report said the detentions were unusual because the situation of underground priests in Wenzhou had been "calm" for some time. On Friday, however, the Italian newsweekly Espresso published a two-page article in which it said it...

Blocked Internet Discussion of New Pope WASHINGTON, October 19, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Congressional-Executive Commission on China released its 2005 Annual Report last week, which detailed a myriad of deplorable human rights abuses routinely committed by the Chinese regime. The Commission, created by Congress in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, reports that "The Chinese government monitors and inspects registered seminaries, where it is forbidden to teach anything contrary to Party policy, including Catholic moral teaching on abortion, euthanasia, contraception, and divorce." Released on October 11,...

PINGTAN, China, JULY 29, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Chinese government arrested a priest, a seminarian and nine parishioners who had been celebrating Mass in a private home in Pingtan, reported a U.S.-based watchdog group. On Wednesday, officials interrupted Father Lin Daixian, 40, priest of the Diocese of Fuzhow -- in southeast province of Fujian -- and some 50 faithful, as they were praying for a parishioner suffering from cancer, reported the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation on Thursday. In arresting the priest of the underground Catholic Church, the police "savagely beat the parishioners who tried in vain to prevent Father Lin's arrest,"...

HONG KONG (AP) - A Chinese Catholic official said Beijing and the Vatican will establish ties, but the process will take a long time, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday. Liu Bonian, identified as an official at the state-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, praised a recent comment by Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo that difficulties preventing official ties are not ``insurmountable,'' the Wen Wei Po newspaper reported. Liu said Lajolo's comments showed the Vatican was working o forge official links with China under new Pope Benedict XVI, who assumed his position in April, according to the report. China doesn't...

Bishop languishing in Beijing’s prisons for four years The authorities deny knowing anything about the fate of Bishop Shi Enxiang or Fr Liu Deli, jailed for six years, whose names join that of many others on a list AsiaNews published back in March. Beijing (AsiaNews) – Four years ago, 83-year-old Mgr Shi Enxiang, a Bishop in the Chinese underground Church, disappeared and the authorities deny knowing anything about his fate. There is grave concern that he might end up like Mgrs Fan Xueyn and Li Lifang, who died in prison. For this reason, the Chinese underground Church has decided to...