Cardinal John Tong, the current apostolic administrator of the Hong Kong diocese.
(Photo: ChinaAid)
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(Beijing, Hebei Province—Jan. 04, 2021) Although Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials arrested two nuns visiting their home in Hebei Province in May, this information did not become public until December 30. As the two nuns in their 40s planned to return to Hong Kong where they work at the Art Deco villa in the suburbs of Kowloon, the CCP detained them for three weeks before releasing them into house arrest.
The CCP has not formally charged the two nuns who remain under house arrest. Reuters interviewed three Catholic clerics with “inside” knowledge who said, “The nuns … are forbidden to leave the mainland.” According to Western diplomats, in recent months, since China passed its national security law, CCP security agents have increased surveillance of the mission.
Reuters reports:
The mission keeps such a low profile that it isn’t listed in the Roman Catholic Church’s formal directory of every priest and property in the city. The two monsignors who staff the outpost have no formal standing with Beijing or the Hong Kong government, and they don’t conduct official work, not even meeting Hong Kong officials. The tenuous foothold is a sign of the delicate position in China of the world’s largest Christian denomination, many of whose members in Hong Kong staunchly support the city’s democracy movement.And now the mission – and the Church as a whole in Hong Kong – is coming under mounting pressure as Beijing moves to extinguish opposition voices in the city under a new national security law.…The Church has not publicly mentioned the arrests. The Vatican official in Rome told Reuters he interpreted the move as a way for Beijing to indicate its unhappiness with the mission’s presence in Hong Kong.Cardinal Zen says efforts by government authorities to silence the Church in Hong Kong are inexorable. “I don’t know for how long you can still hear my voice,” he wrote in his statement to Reuters. “So please pray for us.”
Cardinal Joseph Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong.
(Photo: Jindřich Nosek [NoJin])
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Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.
For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered.
~ Romans 8:26 (NKJV)
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