After Pushback from Diocese, Catholic Group Drops Plan to Run Post-National Security Law Prayer for Hong Kong in Local Newspaper

South China Morning Post ^ | 8/29/20 | Gary Cheung

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*Church officials said they took issue both with the crowdfunding campaign that would have paid for the ad as well as the content of the prayer

*Praying for deliverance from ‘oppression and slavery’ could be interpreted as ‘targeting the Hong Kong government’, local divinity professor suggests

Amid opposition from church leaders, a Hong Kong Catholic group has dropped a planned crowdfunding campaign that would have bought advertising space in a local newspaper to run a prayer for the city’s democratic development in light of the national security law’s imposition.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, the Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese said diocese leadership had decided the fundraising plan had to be stopped, as it disagreed both with the fundraising method and the content of the prayer.

The commission planned to run the prayer in the September 6 edition of the pro-opposition, Chinese-language Apple Daily, and began a crowdfunding campaign on Thursday to raise the money to do so.

In the introduction to the prayer, drafted by members of justice and peace organisations from several Asian countries, the group noted that Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences president Cardinal Charles Maung Bo had asked that prayers be offered up in view of the national security law’s recent enactment.

“Lord, you reward your faithful servants with prosperity, but for servants not of your mind, your justice will come and you will deliver your people from oppression and slavery,” the prayer reads.

“As the city of Hong Kong is under threats of abusive control, we pray for your mercy.

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