Bishop Aloysius Jin, before he died, made a deal with the Chinese government to give the Party money for certain concessions. There were no positive concessions, and the government began siphoning off whatever money it could, hiding it in national banks. This thievery grew worse three years ago in 2012 after Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, the papally-approved Bishop, who was slated to replace the dying Jin, was put under house arrest because he publicly resigned from the communist-controlled Patriotic Association immediately after his consecration in Shanghai Cathedral. He is still in detention and under surveillance in the local Sheshan seminary and he is forbidden to exercise his ministry. Even before Bishop Jin died the Shanghai diocese was put under the control of a “committee of five” Patriotic Association officials (priests? or laymen? I do not know) who work for the communist Religious Affair Bureau. They have been facilitators for the government’s appropriation of Church funds. Whatever is happening now between the Vatican and China under Pope Francis is strictly done through secret channels.
Bishop Ma has certain freedoms: he posts a blog, and can receive visitors (not the media) who get a pass from the government. According to one source, Peter, who would only give his first name, Bishop Ma was offered his freedom if he would assume the leadership of the Patriotic Association: “Officials told Bishop Ma late last year that he would be freed if he became chair of the CPA. But in a coded message to say that his plan to stand down upon his ordination was premeditated, Bishop Ma rejected the offer explaining ‘you’d better let me die’.”
Following the arrest and detention of Bishop Ma, priests and nuns in Shanghai have been forced to attend “reeducation classes” (brainwashing sessions).
UCANews: Substantial and unusual transactions in the tens of millions of yuan have reportedly gone missing from the Shanghai diocese to irregular accounts over the last year, intensifying trouble for the local Church on the anniversary of the house arrest of Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin.
Tens of millions of yuan have moved from one bank to another “under instructions from the party’s Religious Affairs Bureau officials,” a source told ucanews.com.
The Shanghai transactions are part of a larger countrywide invasion of Church accounts, estimated at 90 million yuan (US$14.3 million) over a number of years. Full report is here.
