[Tightening grip on Churches, further influence on Catholic world 1/3]

The Ten Commandments have been removed, and Xi Jinping quotations posted instead in churches everywhere in China.

Believer also revealed that some Three-Self churches had been shut down for not implementing the government’s demand to replace the Ten Commandments with the president’s quotes. Some congregations have been threatened to be blacklisted by the government, meaning that their travels will be restricted and schooling and future employment of their offspring will be impeded if they refused to overhaul their churches according to the current national policies.

The Communist Party erodes the Christian doctrine by ordering the national flag, portrait of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping and ‘core socialist values’ to be placed in churches and monitoring believers and religious activities through the surveillance camera network.

#FreedomofReligion
#Xi

https://bitterwinter.org/xi-jinpings-quotes-replace-the-ten-commandments/

[Tightening grip on Churches, further influence on Catholic world 2/3]

Father Richard Soo: Is the church in Canada a sanctuary or target?

Father Richard Soo, SJ, is the protosynkellos of the Eparchy of New Westminster, Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church in Canada.

We were Vancouver Christians for Love, Peace and Justice, praying for Hong Kong. Not political, we offered a safe space for Christians to pray and share their heartache at the violence, threats and injustice suffered by protesters in Hong Kong. The church is not involved in politics. But it is committed to social justice and human rights. The Bible is clear, “The Spirit of the Lord … has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to the captives … and to set the oppressed free!”.

As a priest, I’ve always felt safe in Canada — until one Sunday in August when our prayer meeting was surrounded by pro-Beijing protesters. We saw their big Communist flags going around the church and parking lot. It was a shock and it was scary. A journalist was surrounded, photographed and told they would upload her photo and get everyone to harass her. Thank God the Vancouver police came to our rescue! This was a new and frightening experience for me but not for my church. Worse happened to our church in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014. Those events in Ukraine have startling parallels with what is unfolding now in Hong Kong. In November 2013, students began protesting against corruption and demanding human rights. The Ukrainian government hired street hoodlums to do their dirty work and attack the protesters. Many say that’s what is happening in Hong Kong.

My bishop, in Ukraine for meetings, roused other bishops who drove to the protest. Walking down the gap between soldiers and protesters and catching the eye of each soldier as they passed, the hierarchs stood with the protesters, sharing the danger of police attacks, witnessing government snipers shot dead almost 100 protesters in cold blood, in broad daylight, in the central square of the capital, with the world’s cameras running. The populace poured into the streets, demanding democracy, freedom and the president’s resignation. Chapels were set up for protesters. The churches denounced the violence and repression, calling for human rights and freedom. Finally, the Kremlin-controlled president fled to Russia. The people took power.
But we paid a heavy price. When Russia occupied Crimea, they extinguished our church. When the Kremlin invaded the Donbass, it destroyed our cathedral. Under pain of death, the bishop fled into exile. But the church will not be silent. It has the obligation to both speak up for the downtrodden and speak out against repression. Like Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. … Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

#FreedomofReligion

This article is abstracted and edited. Read full article at: Vancouversun
https://bit.ly/2mbp8J8

Q: Do you oppose to the deal signed between the Vatican and the Beijing last year?
A: The deal was signed, and they had already taken one last step. It was too bad for the Vaticans gave everything to the Communists. I raised some questions regarding to a paper published on 28 June. I went to Rome to raise my questions. The document was prepared by Cardinal Parolin, yet he did not bear any responsibility for it. The paper was not signed by anyone nor any department. I would say this is very dirty. The Pope promised to investigate, yet after two months, I am still waiting for a reply.

Q: There are two churches, an official one and an underground one. Are the members of the underground church being persecuted?
A: The underground church is still active discreetly since it is unwilling to be controlled by the government. The state-controlled church is not an authentic Catholic church. [...] (The formally endorsed church) is in fact a slave of the government. Now the Holy See, under the endorsement of the Pope, encourages everybody to join the official church and said it will respect those who do not join. Yet this is not a respect, merely a temporary tolerance because they know that the underground church will die out. Under the encouragement from the Vatican, many would join the official church. And then those who stay underground will never have a bishop. Everybody would be doomed. When all the existing bishops pass away and no new bishop succeeds, the underground church will also die out. This is exactly the plan of Cardinal Parolin.

#FreedomofReligion

Source :
https://m.facebook.com/2010924402522568/posts/2434539566827714?sfns=mo

#NationalSecurityLaw #Secession #GospelDeclaration
2 Pastors Left Hong Kong after the Gospel Declaration was Reprimanded by China-funded Media for “Intention to Instigate Secession”

Hong Kong Pastors Network, composing of a group of pastors and preachers, published the "Hong Kong 2020 Gospel Declaration" and stated,

“In the face of a totalitarian regime that distorts facts, controls the media, and buries the Truth, the Church courageously rejects all falsehood, and points out what the regime has done wrong”.

The declaration was criticized by Chinese Communist Party- funded newspapers Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po as "infiltrating and brainwashing groups of followers to intentionally incite secession after the implementation of Hong Kong National Security Law".

Reverend Chan Yan-Ming, one of the initiators, confirmed that two members of the network, Reverend Wong Siu-yung and Reverend William Yeung, had left Hong Kong after being reprimanded by the two Beijing-controlled newspapers for violating the national security law.

Christian Times published on Aug 14 that after the forceful imposition of the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30, the Hong Kong Pastors Network had been disbanded. Reverend Wong and Yeung, the two primary initiators of Hong Kong 2020 Gospel Declaration, have fled Hong Kong due to family concerns and pressure after being criticised.

Source: Stand News #Aug14
#FreedomOfReligion #HongKongPastorsNetwork
#PoliticalOppression

#WhiteTerror #FreedomofReligion
Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

Ninety-year-old retired Catholic cardinal #JosephZen hosted a packed mass in Hong Kong on the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, just hours after a brief court hearing over charges linked to pro-democracy protests.

In his homily after pleading not guilty to charges of failing to register a pro-democracy association to Hong Kong Police, Zen chose not to speak about his legal case, but to highlight how Catholics in some parts of China cannot attend Mass right now — for they have no freedom now.

Zen dedicated the mass to churches in China where believers are still split between a so-called “underground” church resistant to the government, and a state-sanctioned church belonging to the Chinese Communist Party’s Patriotic Catholic Association.

In his remarks at Mass, Zen again criticised the deal between China and the #Vatican that allows Beijing to nominate bishops for the pope’s approval, calling it “unwise” despite being made with “good intention”.

"There is an urge to unify those above the ground and those underground but it seems that time is not ripe yet,” Zen said.

Implying that there may be more difficult times ahead, Zen said that “we may have to bear some pain and steel ourselves for our loyalty to our faith.”

He also dedicated prayers to churches in Myanmar led by #CardinalBo, his most outspoken supporter in Asia, as well as “brothers and sisters who cannot join tonight because they are not free”.

Zen, one of Asia’s highest-ranking Catholic clerics, was among five prominent democracy advocates — including activist and singer #DeniseHo and veteran human rights barrister #MargaretNg — who were arrested in early May. His arrest is part of a national security police probe into foreign collusion over a legal support fund for pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Instead, all five of the fund’s former trustees and its secretary were charged on May 24 with failing to register it as a “society” with police — a non-national security offence. All plead not guilty.

#NationalSecurityLaw #PoliceState #PoliticalProsecution #Oppression

Image source: #FirstHand
Sources: Reuters, HKFP, UCA News; #May25
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hong-kong-catholic-cardinal-criticises-china-deal-after-national-security-arrest-2022-05-24/

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/32751
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#PoliticalOppression #WhiteTerror
#FreedomofReligion
Vatican 'should not sacrifice Cardinal Zen for China'

Source: UCA News, #Sept5

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