Beijing on Tuesday issued a national security alert in which it stated that religion posed a serious threat to Chinese identity, further stoking fears of a backlash on Christian in the wake of recent church demolitions.

The report, or “blue book”, which was co-released by the University of International Relations and the Social Science Academic Press (China) during a conference in Beijing, states that the “infiltration of religion has constituted a threat to Chinese identification with socialist belief”.

Wu Li, vice director of the Institute of Contemporary China at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told local media that the blue book “comes at the right time”, as it could offer advice to the newly established National Security Council in China, which was created in November and held its first meeting last month.

The report spelled out four “severe challenges” to national security including the exporting of democracy by western nations, western cultural hegemony, the dissemination of information on the internet and religious infiltration.

“Western hostile forces are infiltrating China’s religions in a more diverse way and in a wider range; deploying more subtle means either openly or secretly; and are strongly seditious and deceptive in nature,” the report states.

“Foreign religious infiltration powers have penetrated all areas of the Chinese society,” it added.

Ying Fuk-tsang, director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told ucanews.com that religions in China involve different backgrounds, noting that terrorists could manipulate religion in Xinjiang and Tibet, and that separatism leads to social tension.

As for Western faiths such as Christianity, Ying said that Beijing acknowledges their contributions but also fears the West’s use of religion and human rights to “bring peaceful evolution”.

The same fears apply to NGOs, which Beijing considers mostly faith-based. “We can say the Party is now preventing all aspects so that it does not affect its rule. Against this backdrop, it is not difficult to understand the wave of demolition of Christian worshipping grounds in Zhejiang recently,” Ying said.

Authorities in Wenzhou last week carried out demolitions of the sanctuary of the Protestant Sanjiang church as well as religious statues and images from a Catholic-owned hilltop park.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the State Administration for Religious Affairs on Monday also jointly issued a statement with respect to faith-based orphanages that bans what was described as the forced conversion of orphans.

http://www.ucanews.com/news/china-says-religions-are-a-threat-to-national-security/70883

For the first time since the rise of the country’s Communist regime, a contemplative monastery has been opened in China, the AsiaNews service reports.

The monastery of St. Augustine’s Garden was established in the Shanxi province, with the blessing of both the local bishop and the government’s director of religious affairs. Three women religious have joined the new community. Their leader, Sister Mary Niu Shufen, said: “The monastery is not my work, but God’s work, as He looks after both the small and the big works.”

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=21528

Not all the news is bad.
 :cool: :cool: :cool:

Does anybody know what Rites do the Underground use?

I remember Sedevacantists Saying that their Rites were pre 1968 Ordinations/Consecrations, and thus made up a large portion of the surviving Catholic Orders on Earth.

A Chinese priest of the “underground” Catholic Church has been freed after 8 years in prison, the AsiaNews service reports.

Father Joseph Lu Genjun was arrested in 2006 while serving in the Hebei province. He was imprisoned without a trial, and his whereabouts were not disclosed. He had been arrested and jailed for short terms on three previous occasions.

Father Lu, who was harassed because of his refusal to join the Catholic Patriotic Association, was acting as vicar for the Baoding diocese, after the arrest of Bishops James Su Zhimin and Francis An Shuxin. The latter, Bishop An, later agreed to join the Patriotic Association, and has been recognized by the government. Bishop An is believed to have used his influence with officials to press for the release of Father Lu.

Bishop James Su Zhimin, who was arrested in 1996, remains in prison

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=22275

The eighty-two-year-old Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, the fighter, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, spent the night out in the square with students from the Occupy Central movement. He gave up the leadership of the diocese in 2009 and was succeeded by former Auxiliary Bishop John Tong Hong who is now also a cardinal. But he did not stop supporting movements that are fighting for democracy and human rights in China. Particularly when the principle of “one country, two systems” must be safeguarded at all costs. Under this system, Hong Kong enjoys a wide range of freedoms, while being under Beijing’s jurisdiction since 1997.

 

Cardinal Zen has decided to put his authority to good use and protest China's new plan for Hong Kong's 2017 election. Authorities ruled out open nominations during the elections in an attempt to restrict the list of candidates to “acceptable” individuals. Last June he organised a three-day march through the city to back Occupy Central’s autonomy referendum. When students began their peaceful occupation of the financial district, the cardinal decided to support them in their cause. “The time has come to really show that we no longer want to be slaves, but to be free,” he said, addressing the crowds. Then, last night, when police started using tear gas to disperse protesters, Cardinal Zen urged students to go home: “A victory involving the sacrifice of human lives would not be a victory.” He stressed, however, that this was not a defeat and that the battle will continue but under a different form.

 

But the protests continue. And the question the Church in Hong Kong is now faced with – having also supported free elections last year – is how far it should go. Importantly, this morning Cardinal Tong, who currently heads the diocese, sent out an “urgent appeal”, prudently inviting both sides to engage in dialogue. “I would like to call on the special administrative region of Hong Kong to put the personal safety of fellow citizens as [its] prime concern and to exercise restraint and listen to the voice of the younger generation and of citizens from all walks of life. It is also my sincere wish that all those who are trying to voice out their grievances will be persistent in keeping calm. Where there is a will, there is a way.”

 

The specific case of Hong Kong must not be seen in isolation from the broader spectrum of the Holy See’s relations with China. Readers will recall that only about a week or so ago, during his apostolic visit to Korea, Pope Francis reached out to the country’s leadership, emphasizing that Christians have no aspirations for political expansion. The challenge Vatican diplomacy now faces is safeguarding a freedom the Church has fought so hard to protect, whilst at the same time ensuring that in doing so, it does not jeopardise its relations with China. This is no easy task, particularly now that thousands of people (and a cardinal) have taken to the streets.

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/hong-kong-hong-kong-hong-kong-36628/

Sorry I forgot,  THe above prayer initially had a 50 day indulgence which was raised to 300 days at a later date.

A Chinese bishop who suffered 14 years of imprisonment and forced labor at the hands of the Communist regime has died at the age of 89.

Born in 1925, Bishop John Chrysostom Lan Shi was ordained to the priesthood in 1954 and arrested in 1965. With the mandate of the Holy See, he was ordained coadjutor bishop of Sanyuan in central China in 2000.

The prelate died on September 21, and the Fides news agency and Vatican website reported on his death on October 8.


http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=22870
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.