At Asia News, Fr Bernardo Cervellera summarised the situation of Chinese Catholics. It includes “churches closed or destroyed; crosses torn down from bell towers or ripped from the walls of the churches; domes razed to the ground; ancient statues of shrines seized; religious signs removed from inside and outside homes; priests driven out of their ministry; others forced to return to their village of origin; young people under the age of 18 blocked and stopped in front of churches because they are not allowed to enter or receive any religious instruction.”
These forms of suppression have been stepped up since February 2018, when the government issued new regulations on religion. All religions must now be subject to “exclusively top-down control exerted by religious affairs offices at all levels ”. The construction of churches – or even new crosses and statues – requires a permit. Live streams of religious ceremonies are banned, and text posted online needs government approval. Clergy must register and sign up to support the government: unregistered gatherings are punished with huge fines, meaning that many underground priests have cancelled all gatherings.
The underground Church is suffering most. “One example among the many” is the 10 churches closed in Qiqhar Diocese, “and with some priests driven out and forcibly taken back to their villages of origin”.
Meanwhile, the Church is subject to “Sinicisation”, in which churches must be redesigned, and texts banned, if their religious element is not subordinated to the government’s view of Chinese culture.
A conservative who put freedom second
At Spectator USA, Ben Sixsmith recalled a forgotten figure in US conservatism, L Brent Bozell Jr. Bozell became disillusioned with mainstream conservatism and its emphasis on liberation: “The story of how the Free society has come to take priority over the good society,” he wrote, “is the story of the decline of the West.”
He argued for “a political Catholicism”, insisting that the faith must be advanced in the public square: “What point is there in encouraging virtue in the family, and having it undermined in the school and on the street?”
Today, Sixsmith wrote, Bozell has a “powerful historic resonance” as conservatives become “more radically oppositionist”.
On the fringes of the Amazon synod
At Crux, Elise Harris noted that next month’s Amazon synod will be greeted by “at least four different counter events”. There’s the campaign of prayer and fasting launched by two bishops. Also, on October 4 – two days before the synod begins – a conservative group called Voice of the Family will host a roundtable discussion in Rome entitled, ‘Our Church – Reformed or Deformed?’” A day after, conservative and traditionalist Catholics will host a symposium called “The Truth about the Amazon”. Also on October 5, “Catholics opposed to the synod are schedule to hold a large public ‘prayer for the Church’ near Castel Sant’Angelo, just a stone’s throw from the Vatican walls.”
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