On April 2, Vatican spokesman, Joaquín Navarro Valls, issued a press statement reporting on the arrest of a 75-year-old priest of the underground Catholic Church, Thomas Zhao Kexium, on March 30. According to the Zenit news service in Rome, Kexium was returning from a funeral when he was detained by security forces. The reasons for his arrest and his present location are unknown.
Zenit also reports that the bishop of the same diocese of Xuanhua, in the province of Hebei, Philip Peter Zhao Zhendong (85) was arrested on January 3 and is presently detained in the city of Jiangjiakow. According to the same report, national security forces arrested Bishop James Lin Xili (86), Bishop of Wenzhou, in the province of Zhejiang on March 20. Two days later, Gao Xinyou, collaborator in the pastoral care of the laity in the Longgang area, was also arrested.
These arrests add to the list of Roman Catholic bishops and priests arrested or prevented from carrying out their ministry by the Chinese authorities, reported in the Persecution and Prayer Alert on March 9. To view the list of these Catholic leaders and addresses for Chinese authorities, to whom you can write on their behalf, click here.
Continue to pray for each of these Christians who have been imprisoned, many of them old and frail. Pray for God's peace, protection, and assurance.
For more information on persecution in China, click here. The May 2005 edition of VOM's monthly newsletter will be featuring the persecution of Christians in China. To subscribe to this newsletter, click here.
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