October 1, 2009. As the People’s Republic of China is celebrating the party's 60th anniversary, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong is calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao to release all Catholic bishops in prison.


According the Cardinal Kung Foundation, currently, every one of the approximately 35 underground bishops of the Roman Catholic Church is either in jail, under house arrest, under strict surveillance, or in hiding.

Cardinal Joseph Zen´s message was made public on the Diocese on Hong Kong's website last week.

Most recently, a bishop was taken into custody last March.

Cardinal Zen says the time has come to be courageous and correct past mistakes by releasing religious leaders who were deprived of their freedom.

Card. Joseph Zen
Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, China
(On March 13, 2009)
"Everything we are doing and saying is just because we love our country. Because we see that this way of dealing with the church denying the freedom is a shame for our country. You know we know that all the other countries are doing good business with China. But in their hearts they don’t respect China. Because they know that there’s not much human rights."

The Cardinal is hopeful the government in Beijing will step up after President Hu vowed the party was working to resolve contradictions during a speech he made earlier this month.

Cardinal Zen views President Hu´s goal as an “unprecedented challenge...but also as a great opportunity.”

China is among one of the Asian communist countries that have been affected by the lack of religious freedom and reportedly Christians are some of the most victimized.


MC