Authorities from the Chinese Communist Party, whose leader is dictator Xi Jinping, arrested the bishop of a diocese in Wenzhou province after he criticized the regime's interference in the church's internal affairs.
After his arrest at the beginning of the month, human rights organizations and members of the diocese completely lost communication with the religious leader.
According to information from the NGO China Aid, which follows the situation of persecution of Christians in China, Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin refused to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which is controlled by the Communist Party. As a result, he did not receive recognition from the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
Over the years, he was regularly detained for several months by local authorities in Wenzhou. The Chinese provincial government uses this measure in an attempt to weaken church activity in the region. Bishop Shao is often arrested during major holidays in the church calendar, such as Easter and Christmas, preventing him from celebrating Mass with the congregation.
The dictatorship deliberately appointed Father Ma Xianshi, a member of the regime-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, to oversee the diocese, replacing the bishop in carrying out the functions of the diocese.
A source who followed the situation closely told the portal AsiaNews that security forces in Wenzhou took Bishop Shao Zhumin into custody on January 2. “He was ordered to bring clothes for spring, summer, fall and winter. This suggests that his situation is not promising and that he will likely be detained for a long time. The faithful are worried because they don’t even know where he will be detained,” he said.
Just days before Christmas, on December 16, 2023, Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin was taken away by security forces and released two days later. From December 24 to 25, he was again taken to Taishun County in Wenzhou to prevent him from celebrating Christmas mass.
The main hypothesis that may have triggered the recent arrest on the 2nd is the letter that Dom Peter Shao Zhumin wrote to Father Ma Xianshi, from the diocese of Wenzhou, on December 31st, about decisions taken in his absence.
According to the report, Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin expressed opposition to decisions made by diocesan priests regarding the division of parishes and the transfer of priests, the demotion of Lishui Diocese to the status of a parish under the Diocese of Wenzhou, and the promotion of seminarians.
Dom Peter Shao Zhumin protested against the measures that affected the diocese where he works without his permission and he was subsequently arrested. According to the Code of Canon Law, personnel appointments, consecrations and transfers within the Church must be decided unilaterally or authorized by the bishop. Anyone who receives holy orders from someone who has no legitimate power to order is automatically suspended.
Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin expressed in the letter his desire to meet with Father Ma to discuss the current difficulties facing the diocese. However, he received a response stating that it was “inconvenient for us to meet.”
The 61-year-old bishop was taken only on suspicion of opposing interference by state authorities in the affairs of the diocese in China's eastern Zhejiang province. Peter Shao Zhumin was appointed by the Vatican in 2011 and took over as legitimate bishop in September 2016, following the death of Bishop Vincent Zhu Wei-Fang.
Religious persecution in China
The 2024 World Religious Persecution List from the NGO Open Doors revealed that China led the ranking among countries with the highest number of closed churches, with at least 10,000 incidents in this regard, in the last year.
Xi Jinping's dictatorial regime was responsible for countless arrests of pastors and priests, who were taken to interrogation and released or remain imprisoned, without any external contact with lawyers, family members or members of their churches.
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