The communist – approved Catholic Church in China is facing persecution despite official status. Officially registered churches are harassed regardless of belonging to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), a control arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This comes from a recent report by Bitter Winter, a magazine on human rights and religious liberty in China.
A CPCA deacon in Hebei province near Beijing explained his church joined the CPCA hoping the communists would allow them to worship in peace.
“But the situation has changed, and registered churches are sometimes harassed more than the unregistered ones,” he said. “They also have their crosses removed.”
In July, the CCP took down the cross from the deacon’s church and installed a surveillance camera at the entrance.
“The government is even more confident in controlling registered churches. Had we known this beforehand, we would not have joined the CPCA,” he lamented. Similar treatment has been reported from other locations throughout the country.
But the situation has changed, and registered churches are sometimes harassed more than the unregistered ones. Tweet Officials covered the sign reading “Catholic Church” with boards and removed crosses, benches and other religious symbols from a church in the Wangdangjia village. Soon thereafter, a nearby church was closed. The government in a prefecture-level city in Shandong province closed two CPCA churches in June, alleging “not many congregation members attend gatherings.”
Local officials in the town of Jinling removed a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and cross on the village church because “they were taller than the village committee building. In June, officials closed a CPCA church in Zhangmentun village. The closure occurred after they removed the 14 stations of the cross, the altar and a dove on the roof of the church.

The Sisters of Mother Teresa came to Hong Kong in 1983. At present, they have two religious communities with 14 missionaries who run two centres on Kowloon Peninsula, an area with rundown sections and many homeless people. The nuns’ main work is to provide hot meals to the poor (a few hundred) and shelter to the homeless (a few dozen).
Mother Teresa visited Hong Kong on several occasions. The University of Hong Kong awarded her with an honorary degree. In the 1980s and 1990s, talks were held about opening new homes in mainland China, but Beijing eventually refused the necessary permits and the plan fell through.
What follows is a message from the Missionaries of Charity published in the Sunday Examiner, Hong Kong’s Catholic weekly.
We are privileged to be part of the vibrant Church in Hong Kong and to be able to-serve the poorest of the poor here through simple and humble works of love.
In our temporary shelters for the homeless, we try to bring the light of Christ to hapless men and women, to dispel the darkness in their lives and to give them Divine Hope. The experience of the joy of prodigal sons and daughters returning to the tender and merciful embrace of our Heavenly Father gives us strength and encouragement to continue our service of patience, understanding and love for the poor. Over the years, we have witnessed with joy the love of God touching their hearts.

Fr Liu Maochun, 46, a priest of the diocese of Mindong (Fujian), has been in the hands of the Religious Affairs Bureau for 17 days. Fr Liu is not reco-gnized as a priest because he be-longs to the underground Church and refuses to sign up for membership in the independent Church (which is subject to the Chinese Communist Party).
In the late afternoon of September 1st, Fr Liu had gone to visit some sick people in the hospital. On leaving, around 6.30 pm, a group of people, sent by the Religious Affairs Bureau, arrested him and took him to an unknown location. His where-abouts is still unknown. Family members have lobbied for news of him, but to no avail. The authorities have only confirmed that he is in the hands of the Religious Affairs Bureau.
Father of Fr Liu is 86 years old and very ill and has limited mobility; his mother, 70, is also ill: both need his help.
According to information from Mindong, several priests – at least 20 – refuse to join the “independent Church.” For this they are under constant pressure from the local government and have been deprived of the freedom to treat the faithful. These pressures have grown stronger in the run-up to a possible renewal of the Sino-Vatican agreement.

Sri Lankan religious leaders say they are saddened by the efforts of some groups to promote cannabis cultivation at a time when the government is taking strong measures to eradicate drugs from the country.
Ven. Ittapana Dhammalankara Thera, chief prelate of Kotte Sri Kalayani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha of Siyam Maha Nikaya, said the government should take immediate action to stop all promotions related to cannabis.
“Regular drug raids should be further strengthened and act-ion should be taken to eradicate narcotics from the country. At the same time, the government should make every effort to strictly enforce laws and eradicate drugs including cannabis from the country,” he said.
Experts claim that the country can generate high revenue from the cultivation of cannabis. Recent research has shown that if drugs based on cannabis are manufactured and exported, it will be possible to earn more foreign exchange than is earned from all exports.
Sri Lanka has become a major transit point for traffickers as well as suffering from widespread drug addiction. Cannabis and heroin have become the top two narcotic scourges in the country. Concerns are growing about drug abuse among young people including children.

American Holy Cross missionary priest Richard William Timm (1923-2020) was a giant among men with a big heart burning with selfless love for humanity.
More than six decades of service in Bangladesh (1952-2016) speak volumes for him, and his death on Sept. 11 in the US brought to an end a golden era of extraordinary missionary life and works that touched the lives of millions of Bangladeshis.
He will be remembered as a pioneering missionary in a land where a small but strong Christi-an community has thrived thanks to great Western missionaries like him over the past five centuries.
Bangladesh can never forget this great icon as he was “an American by blood but a Bangladeshi by spirit.” He is an inseparable part of the history of Bangladesh and his demise saddened many people of other faiths thanks to great memories of his companionship and contributions.

At least 30 seminarians at a minor seminary in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province have been infected with the coronavirus. Some are currently being treated at a local hospital, while others are self-quarantining.

Judges in smaller courts in Pakistan are too afraid to let Christians go free in blasphemy cases because of the threat from extremists, a human rights activist says.
The country prosecutes anyone who is seen to be insulting Islam – with the death sentence often handed out.
In light of another Christian falling foul of the laws, Sajid Christopher Paul, President and Executive Director of Human Friends Organisation, has said more needs to be done to make judges feel secure.
“Judges in the low courts do not feel as secure as the judges in the higher courts. The judges in the low courts do not have as much security as the High Court and the Supreme Court,” Paul told religious freedom charity Aid to the Church in Need.
“I am not saying the judges themselves say they are insecure but the lawyers and everyone involved in cases such as this say that they don’t have the same security so they don’t make the bold decisions.
“The Supreme Court can make daring decisions like the acquittal of Asia Bibi because they have high-level security.”

As the Vatican sits poised to renew its historic agreement with China on the appointment of bishops later this month, one of the Catholic Church’s leading experts on Chinese affairs has argued that while the desire for dialogue is understandable, there is still nothing to show for the deal two years later.
“I understand the positivity, the temptation to have this relationship with China, but I have to say that there is very little fruit,” said Father Bernardo Cervellera, voicing his hope that “the Vatican, in renewing the agreement, instead of undergoing still more of the demands of China, puts more posts” in the way of their demands.
Head of Asia News and a former missionary in China, Cervellera spoke during a Sept. 4 online discussion hosted by the Acton Institute, a free-market Catholic organization, offering his evaluation of the state of the Asian continent amid the coronavirus pandemic and the new national security law in Hong Kong.
Speaking of the provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops the Vatican made with China in 2018, which is up for renewal this month, Cervellera noted that many officials on the Vatican’s side have praised the deal as something both positive and fruitful, while “China has never said anything.”
He referred to one article printed in the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper with ties to the Communist Party, which quoted Vatican officials praising the agreement, but which contained no references to officials or opinions from members of the Chinese government.
Everything, in this sense, he said, would mean that “the Vatican must give the ‘okay’ for everything that China does, and certainly they must interrupt their dialogue with Taiwan.”

The leader of the Diocese of Hong Kong has instructed priests to avoid politics in homilies and admonishing them for “offensive” and “provocative” preaching. The warning comes amid a crackdown on free expression in Hong Kong, after the implementation of the new National Security Law in July.
A letter, obtained by CNA, was sent from Cardinal John Tong Hon, the former Bishop of Hong Kong and current administrator of the diocese. “The homily is not meant to convey the preacher’s personal views (such as his own view on a social or political issue) but God’s message,” the cardinal wrote.
While the letter does not explicitly reference the ongoing political situation, the cardinal warned that priests and deacons “should be well aware that our faithful are all the time listening to what we say and watching what we do.”
“Therefore, we have to be prudent and attentive to what we say in our homilies, sermons and speeches.”
Cardinal Tong has previously spoken in support of the National Security Law, which came into force on July 1. The cardinal insisted the law would have “no effect” on the local Church’s religious freedom. Since the law came into force, Catholic journalists, political activists, and businessmen have been arrested on charges of sedition.

Religious and ethnic parties must be banned: they do nothing but divide the country, says Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, in his homily for the National Day of the Sick, delivered in the basilica of Our Lady of Lanka in Tewatte.
Referring to the Easter attacks last year, and to the slow progress in investigations to find the culprits, Cardinal Ranjith recalled that religion must not divide or kill people: “If one religion destroys another, what is its meaning? Show me where such a God is!”
According to the Archbishop, religious extremism has spread dangerously in the country. He wonders if religious leaders are responsible for the attacks. The suicide bombers targeted three churches – two Catholic and one Protestant – and three hotels. The explosions caused about 280 deaths, including 45 foreigners, and nearly 600 victims.
After more than a year, justice has still not been done. “The investigation is underway – under-lined Cardinal Ranjith – but the authorities have not found out who planted the bombs, who the organizers are and who financed the raids.”
He continued that it is of serious concern that those politicians and officials who failed in their responsibilities have yet to be identified: “We ask and hope that the government will keep its promises to the Church, punishing those responsible.”