Posted on 02/21/2020 6:51:53 PM PST by marshmallow
During 2019, many Catholic churches were closed down for refusing to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Even state-run churches are suppressed.
Torn down as “illegal buildings”
On December 29, 2019, the Religious Affairs Bureau of Qishan county, administered by the prefecture-level city of Baoji in the northwestern Shaanxi Province, ordered to demolish a Catholic church in Luojiazhuang village. The church refused to be registered by the state, and was therefore suppressed for “lacking proper permits.”
A local believer told Bitter Winter that before Christmas, the church’s priest, having learned that the government wanted to demolish his church, went to negotiate with religious affairs officials from the county to the provincial level. He was told that the church was doomed to be dismantled, regardless if he tried to obtain permits because “the CCP is cracking down on religions.” Soon after, the church built with funds collected by local Catholics was razed to the ground.
The church’s cross was already removed in November 2018, and the church was rectified twice in 2019. It was later converted into a recreational activity club for villagers – the fate many places of worship suffer at the hands of the Chinese government. “We spent a year attempting to save the church but failed,” the church’s in-charge, in his 80s, complained.
A Catholic church in Guchuan village in Baoji city’s Weibin district was shut down in December for refusing to register with the state. Before the closure, Chinese characters for “Catholic Church” on an outside wall and all three crosses on the roof were removed. A local government insider said that nothing could have saved the church.
“This church has suffered a lot: the government tore it down during the Cultural Revolution, it was later rebuilt, and it was shut down now,” a local believer said ....
(Excerpt) Read more at bitterwinter.org ...
Ping
A tangential point, but the headline uses alliteration effectively.
This is our Catholic Church’s future if the criminal leftists called democrats consolidate power at the federal or even state level.
Buy guns and ammo, folks. Mao Zedung was right. All power emanates from the barrel of a gun.
JoMa
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