Vatican condemns China over arrest

The Vatican issued a strongly worded statement demanding China explain its imprisonment of an 84-year-old bishop.

Chinese police arrested Zhao Zhendong of Xuanhua in Hebei province May 27, and no word has been heard from him since.

"The Holy See feels deep pain for these actions, for which no explanation has been given," said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

They breached "the rights of the person, in particular religious freedom, that are sanctioned in numerous international documents, also underwritten by the People's Republic of China," he said.

Last October, Zhao and Auxiliary Bishop Yao Liang of Xiwanzi in Hebei province were taken into custody and pressured by police to register with the government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association.

The communist government cut off ties with the Vatican in the 1950s and forbids the official CPA from recognizing the pope's authority.

Zhao was held for about 10 days in October.

Yao and another bishop, from Zhengding, were in custody for several days this month and released.

The Vatican counts about 8 million Chinese in the underground Catholic church and an estimated 5 million in the CPA.

As WND reported in April, a Protestant pastor imprisoned by the Chinese government feared he would die because of injuries suffered while in custody.

In another case reported by WND, a church leader imprisoned in China was crippled by a severe beating because he had led 50 fellow inmates to Christian faith.

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