The number of churches targeted for demolition in the Chinese province of Zhejiang has reached 1,500 in just two years, according to ucanews.com.
After reports that 2014 was the worst year for religious persecution in China since the Cultural Revolution, observers say that 2015 saw the situation deteriorate further. Relations between China’s religious groups and the Communist Party have not been this strained since the days of Chairman Mao, they reported.
In Tibetan monasteries, monks and nuns complained the Communist Party is interfering more in daily life than it has for years.
“Authorities have lost the hearts of the people after the cross-removal campaign,” said one former Catholic journalist in Zhejiang.
Although the authorities succeeded in forcing churches to display less-conspicuous crosses in Zhejiang, few doubt the provincial government’s campaign has achieved anything other than hardened Christian resolve, let alone curbed an appetite for
evangelisation. “It has helped unite all the clergy to fight for their rights,” said a catechist in Wenzhou.
As the cross-removal policy gathered pace in 2015, lay people and priests went on social media to launch a campaign making mini-crosses, and bishops took the rare step of publicly denouncing authorities. However, with a decline in cross-removing in Zhejiang, Christians say they now face something even worse – a policy of the authorities interfering inside the actual churches.
In Wenzhou, Christians reported that state officials attended church on Sundays to silence critical voices. In other areas of Zhejiang, authorities put up propaganda notices on church pinboards.
This is all part of a new campaign which aims to make churches more Chinese, while selecting Bible verses that correlate with party doctrine. Ucanews.com reported that some estimates put the number of Christians in China at more than 100 million.
Francis wins German award
Pope Francis has been named the winner of Germany’s Charlemagne Prize for his commitment in promoting European unity.
Citing his address to the European Parliament in 2014, the prize’s committee commended the Pope’s message of “peace and understanding” as well as “compassion, tolerance, solidarity and the integrity of creation throughout his pontificate”.
“In a time when the European Union is facing the greatest challenge of the 21st century, it is the Pope ‘from the end of the world’ who orients millions of Europeans to what the European Union brings together at its core: a valid system of values, respect for human dignity and civil liberties, the uniqueness of human beings whatever their ethnic, religious or cultural background and respect for our natural resources,” it said.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said the Pope accepted the award as “a sign of encouragement for peace in Europe and the world”.
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