Chinese Bishop's Whereabouts Remain Unknown a Year After His Arrest

Angelus News ^ | 5/24/22 | CNS

[marshmallow]

A Vatican-approved Chinese bishop remains in detention more than one year after his arrest for allegedly violating the communist country's repressive regulations on religious affairs.

Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu of Xinxiang was arrested May 21, 2021, reported ucanews.com. A day earlier, police arrested 10 priests and an unknown number of seminarians from a Catholic seminary in the diocese that was set up in an abandoned factory building.

About a year ago, authorities in Xinxiang shut down Catholic schools and kindergartens in line with a government ban on education by religious groups.

All those arrested were accused of violating China's regulations on religious affairs and subjected to "political lessons" in detention, said media reports. The priests and seminarians were released after brief detention but remain under surveillance, while the seminary is still closed.

Bishop Zhang, 63, remains detained and his whereabouts are unknown, ucanews.com reported.

It said Bitter Winter, a magazine covering religious liberty and human rights, reported that Bishop Zhang has been targeted and oppressed by officials of the Chinese Community Party for not bowing to pressure to join the government-controlled Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China and Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

The bishop is reportedly among "conscientious objectors" who oppose the 2018 secretive Vatican-China agreement on the appointment of Catholic bishops, which was renewed in 2020.

Since signing the deal, Chinese authorities have intensified their crackdown on churches whose leaders refuse to join state-run church bodies.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

And the MARXIST pope in the Vatican. did what to get them free. Reds of a feather stink like poop.