Report: Communist Chinese Arrest Bishop, 7 Priests, 10 Seminarians, Close Seminary
By Ashlianna Kreiner | June 2, 2021 | 11:58am EDT
At least 100 Communist Chinese police officers raided a Catholic seminary in Hebei (Northeast China) on May 20-21 and arrested seven priests, 10 seminarians, and Bishop Zhang Weizhu, reported AsiaNews.
The Catholic seminary there, housed in a small factory, is not officially recognized by the Communist government. As a result, the seminarians and the laity are considered criminals. “Following the directives of the New Regulations on religious activities, the factory was closed and the director of the company was arrested,” said Asia News.
“Given the huge deployment of police forces, the raid is thought to have been planned for some time,” said the news outlet. “The civil authorities believe that there are other seminarians who have managed to escape and are looking for them in the surrounding area.”
“Public security and police are going from house to house in search of them,” reported Asia News. “If they discover that there are signs attributable to the Catholic faith (crosses, statues, sacred images, photos of the pope, etc.), the owners are fined and the objects seized and destroyed.”
The report further states, “According to many observers, since the signing of the provisional agreement between China and the Holy See, the persecutions of the Catholics -- especially the unofficial ones -- has increased.”
“The police forces have placed bishops under house arrest, imposed very high fines on the faithful, expelled parish priests from the Churches, arrested priests and seminarians,” said Asia News. “For many faithful ‘the agreement has been betrayed.’”
Since the Communists took over China in 1949-50, more than 65 million people have died under the Marxist regime, according to The Black Book of Communism (Harvard University Press)
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