Catholics Increasingly Harassed Ahead Vatican-China Deal Renewal

Bitter Winter ^ | 9/30/20 | Tang Zhe

[marshmallow]

Some churches refusing to join the Patriotic Church are repurposed by the state, while others are barred from activities in the name of “epidemic prevention.”

As the expiration date for the Vatican-China deal of 2018 drew closer, local authorities across China intensified crackdowns on unregistered Catholics, ignoring the Vatican Guidelines of 2019 that ask to respect those who refuse to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) for reasons of conscience. Bitter Winter continuously receives reports about new cases of persecution.

Nuns in Hebei ordered to return home

Nuns in the Diocese of Xuanhua in the northern province of Hebei are repeatedly pressured by local officials to fill out forms for joining the CPCA. “We’d rather be arrested and imprisoned then fill out these applications,” one of the nuns said. “After the forms are filled out, they would summon us to attend training classes in the provincial capital Shijiazhuang, where we would be indoctrinated with the CCP ideology, as they do it to priests.”

In June, the government of Gaojiaying town in Zhangjiakou city’s Chongli district ordered the nuns serving in the town’s Catholic Church, who refused to join the CPCA, to leave the area because “they were not locals.”

“This is our home; some of us have lived here for 20 years,” a nun lamented. “We have no homes to return to. Most of our family members have passed away.”

Unwilling to compromise, the nuns remain in the church. Still, they do not exclude the possibility that the local government will forcibly send them to their hometowns or imprison them in the near future.

[dfwgator]

Bergoglio is a disgusting POS.

[ebb tide]

Ping

[detective]

Pray for faithful Catholics and all people of faith.