Chinese Catholic bishop detained indefinitely - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15180415
James Su Zhimin was a Catholic Bishop in the city of Baoding, Hebei province, China.
He had not been legally registered as a Bishop with the Chinese.

In 1996, he was arrested during a religious procession, for conducting unregistered religious activities. His family did not get to see him and was not told where he was being kept. He was never publicly officially charged with a crime.

November 2003, by chance, his family was able to discover him at a hospital in Baoding, surrounded by police and public security.
He has not been heard or seen from since, despite repeated international inquiries.

In total, he has spent 40 years in prison, without charge, and without trial.

Before being arrested in 1996, Su Zhimin was held off and on for 26 years either in prison or forced labor camps. The Chinese government deemed him as "counterrevolutionary" because, since the 1950s, he had refused to join the Patriotic Association, the national Chinese Catholic Church which has detached themselves from the Pope's authority.

Attempts at memorializing the bishop, or holding public events in his honor, have met with hostile police action.

In 2015, James Su Zhimin's nephew, Su Tianyou, appealed for information about his uncle's whereabouts from religious affairs official, named Guo Wei, who was involved in China-Vatican negotiations. Guo told him to wait for an improvement in China-Vatican relations before Bishop Su could be released.


The state authorities have never recognized Bishop Su Zhimin, who fiercely defended the underground church loyal to the Vatican. Instead, they considered Bishop An, his assistant, as the bishop of Baoding.

Bishop An, originally belonged to the underground church, and in 1993 he was secretly ordained as auxiliary bishop. In 1996, he was detained by authorities and under house arrest for 10 years until he was released in 2006.
Since then, he has been working openly and became vice-chairman of the local CCPA (Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, approved by the Chinese government). The state-sectioned church installed him as the bishop of Baoding in 2010, with state authorities recognizing his position, though some local Catholics refuse to recognize him as the legitimate Bishop.

Su Tianyou said the move was part of a plan to make the local Church submissive. Bishop An will unquestionably toe the government line, leaving the local Church wholly under the state.

Bishop An said that when he was released he asked local provincial authorities where Su Zhimin was but he was told they had no idea. Bishop An then, while attending a meeting with officials at the National Religious Affairs Administration in Beijing, asked them where Su Zhimin was but was told by a senior official that "It is not a matter that we can resolve. It's up to the central government and the Vatican."

Born in 1932, Su Zhimin was arrested a total of eight times, imprisoned, put under house arrest or put through labor camps for more than 30 years. He was ordained a priest in 1981 and appointed bishop of Baoding in 1992.
Su Tianyou said he believes Su Zhimin may be dead now.

Bishop James Su Zhimin | Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (house.gov)
https://humanrightscommission.house.gov ... -Su-Zhimin
Religious Freedom in China: The Case of Bishop James Su Zhimin | Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (house.gov)

Congressional hearing on Bishop Su Zhimin and Religious and Human Rights in China
#15180560
Two nuns working at the Vatican's unofficial mission in Hong Kong were arrested after they went back to their hometown in Hebei (near the vicinity of Beijing), and put under house arrest. It's believed they didn't do anything, but that the Chinese authorities may be trying to put pressure on the Vatican to recognize Chinese control over the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, since Hong Kong is no longer a semi-autonomous area. It's very unusual for nuns to be arrested, usually that only happens to priests. Of course the government does not make public the reason for the arrests.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/sp ... ty-church/
https://www.persecution.org/2021/01/03/ ... ned-hebei/

Their "crime" might have been "conducting unregistered religious activities", a law that is usually not very strictly enforced. (Not that the nuns were really conducting religious activities but such laws can sometimes be very vaguely interpreted)

The Chinese government is probably not happy that the mission in Hong Kong, small as it is, falls outside of the state-controlled Church. It is very symbolic. China applying pressure to force the foreign-controlled Catholic Church in Hong Kong to instead submit to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Catholic Church represents all aspects within Hong Kong being brought into submission and not being given any special exemption as a semi-autonomous area, like it was before.
The mission almost represents an embassy of the Vatican to coordinate with Catholic activity in Hong Kong, separately from the rest of China. The current Chinese government does not want them to be separate, and is eliminating symbols of separation. The fact that the Vatican is a foreign organization is a factor too, since China perceives "foreign meddling" in the Hong Kong area trying to prevent it from being brought to heel by the Chinese government. This explains why the government would want to crackdown in this particular situation.
#15181418
Carrie Lam, the oppressive and China ball-licking Chief Executive of Hong Kong, is a self-proclaimed Catholic.

Given that someone practicing that faith under an independent church can serve China so wholeheartedly, China probably does not see the Catholic Church as much of a threat, at least currently.

Also, the Holy See under Pope Franciscus' leadership seems pretty appeasing to China.
#15181429
Patrickov wrote:Carrie Lam, the oppressive and China ball-licking Chief Executive of Hong Kong, is a self-proclaimed Catholic.

That might be an ignorant ill-informed comment on your part.
Is Carrie Lam a member of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) ?
That's basically the "Catholic" wing of the Chinese government-controlled Christian Church. Not the Vatican-controlled Catholic Church that the Chinese government is cracking down on.
#15181697
Puffer Fish wrote:That might be an ignorant ill-informed comment on your part.
Is Carrie Lam a member of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) ?
That's basically the "Catholic" wing of the Chinese government-controlled Christian Church. Not the Vatican-controlled Catholic Church that the Chinese government is cracking down on.


Hong Kong Catholics are by default Vatican aligning rather than Beijing aligning,
although under the leadership of Francisus the gap is (sadly) smaller.

I am not a Catholic, but I will see the Holy See as the legitimate representative of Catholics worldwide.
CCPA, on the other hand, is an illegitimate usurping puppet organization controlled by the evil Chinese Government.
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