BEIJING (CWNews.com) - A US-based Catholic foundation announced on Sunday that a Chinese archbishop of the underground Church, loyal to the Pope, was arrested by Communist authorities on February 10.
The Cardinal Kung Foundation said Archbishop John Yang Shudao of Fuzhou, 80, was arrested by about 150 police near midnight at his home and his whereabouts are unknown. The archbishop had previously spent 30 years in jail, beginning in 1955, for refusing to renounce the authority of the Pope over the Catholic Church. He was released in 1981 and rearrested in 1988 for a three year term. Archbishop Yang has been arrested many times since then.
The Communist Chinese government requires Christians to worship only in state-controlled associations, including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which eschews any connections to the Vatican or the Pope. Many Catholics worship in illegal, underground churches, following only bishops appointed by the Pope.
Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation and nephew of the foundation's namesake, said: "Contrary to the claims by the Chinese totalitarian government that there is religious freedom in China, there are at least eight Roman Catholic underground bishops, scores of priests, and laypersons now in jails."
Kung recalled that a secret Communist government document released by his group in 1997 urged local leaders to employ "resolute, decisive, and organized measures ... to eradicate the illegal activities of the underground Catholic Church." Another document dated last August said "the underground Church ... must be eliminated by re-education, force labor, dismissal, and isolation of stubborn priests and bishops."
Kung also called for the rejection of China's bid for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). "Any invitation or encouragement to China's entry into the World Trade Organization would be immoral and amounts to condoning the five decades of religious persecutions in China," he said.
CWN - Catholic World News