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Catholics Increasingly Bullied to Join State-Run Church [China]
Bitter Winter ^ | 8/20/19 | Tang Zhe

Posted on 08/21/2019 5:26:17 PM PDT by marshmallow

Authorities are pulling out all the stops to shove “disobedient” believers under the state’s control: churches shut down, congregations threatened and surveilled.

Provincial and municipal governments across China are intensifying efforts to close down underground meeting venues where conscientious objectors who refuse to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) continue to practice their faith. Such actions by the government are disregarding and distorting the Vatican’s June 28 pastoral guidelines that allow Catholic priests and Bishops to join the CPCA but also permit “conscientious objection” by those who believe joining the state-run organization is against their principles.

Confidential document calls for the suppression of underground Catholic venues

According to government insiders, in April, the Leading Group of the United Front Work in a county under the jurisdiction of Fuzhou, a prefecture-level city of the eastern province of Jiangxi, issued a confidential document to intensify “religious rectification work” against underground Catholic activities in the Diocese of Yujiang.

One of the four dioceses of the Archdiocese of Nanchang that roughly covers the territory of Jiangxi, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yujiang unites believers from 20 counties in the east of the province, six of them under the jurisdiction of Fuzhou. Refusing to join the CPCA, some congregations there continue assembling underground, despite attempts by the authorities to make them be governed by the state. Therefore, the edict calls for increased investigations to ascertain the activities of Catholic conscientious objectors, further reducing their survival space, weakening their capabilities to hold religious activities, and intensifying control over key clergy members.

(Excerpt) Read more at bitterwinter.org ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Religion & Politics
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1 posted on 08/21/2019 5:26:17 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow; Al Hitan; Coleus; DuncanWaring; ebb tide; Fedora; Hieronymus; irishjuggler; Jaded; ...

Ping

Thanks Bergoglio. Thanks Parolin.


2 posted on 08/21/2019 5:29:38 PM PDT by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome)
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To: marshmallow

Tell those atheist Commies where they can stick it.

Of course, Francis is a Communist, so...


3 posted on 08/21/2019 5:59:02 PM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: marshmallow

This outcome was so predictable that one can only raw one conclusion: Francis wanted the kill the church in China.


4 posted on 08/21/2019 6:09:18 PM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: marshmallow

“Catholics Increasingly Bullied to Join State-Run Church”

There’s a difference?


5 posted on 08/21/2019 7:36:09 PM PDT by patriot torch
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