China: Two More Underground Priests Imprisoned

AsiaNews: Two priests from the underground Church are in prison since early October. They are “guilty” of having organized catechism classes for adults in the town of Qinyuan , near Baoding (Hebei ). The two men are Fr. Tian Dalong and another priest whose identity is unknown to AsiaNews, both in their 40s.  They were arrested and isolated in police barracks in Baoding, an area with one of the largest non-official communities. Four lay faithful, who helped the priests in their pastoral activities have been forced to pay a fine of 4 thousand yuan each (about 400 EUR ) , accounting for more than two months’ salary of a skilled worker.

According to AsiaNews sources, there are at least 10 priests in similar conditions, some have even been sentenced to the laojiao (forced labor camps for “reform through labor”) for years. What is important about these latest arrests is that they took place just weeks after the Third Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party, a meeting which the leadership loudly proclaimed would produce “unprecedented” Read more here.