Coadjutor Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, the head of Shanghai's "open" church, issued a notice to Sheshan Major Seminary and Tailaiqiao Minor Seminary stating classes had been delayed "until further notice". The notice simply said the decision was due to the "current situation".

Of the two Shanghai seminaries, the regional seminary of Sheshan accepts seminarians from the five nearby provinces that make up the central eastern region of China as well as from Shanghai, a self-administered municipality.

The notice came a few days after the state-sponsored church removed Sister Agnes Liu Shujing from her post as superior general of the Congregation of Our Lady of the Presentation. She had delayed in passing on the Patriotic Association's order that all sisters had to attend the ordination ceremony, because she knew an illicit bishop would be present.

Bishop Ma was ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai on July 7, with the approval of the Holy See. Immediately after the ordination, the 45-year-old bishop was placed under house arrest at the Sheshan seminary.

Bishop Ma is still in confinement and not permitted to wear bishop's garb or exercise his episcopal ministry. "He looked pale and thin," said a source who saw him recently.

Government officials have questioned more than 100 diocesan priests and nuns who were absent from the ordination. They were asked about their reasons for not attending and their opinions on the ordination and Bishop Ma's speech in which he resigned from the Patriotic Association.

One bishop told AsiaNews: "What is happening in Chinese society is also happening in the Catholic Church: the government has lost control of the masses and the people's trust. The faithful no longer pay any attention to the Patriotic Association, it no longer counts."

Sources:

UCA News

Asia News

Image: UCA News

There are undeniably important church/state issues in play in America, but if they constitute a "war," it's a metaphorical one, waged in legislatures and courthouses. Too often lost in the shuffle is the fact — not a hunch, theory or conjecture, but hard empirical fact — that in a growing number of other places, there's a decidedly literal war on religion under way. Its victims don't just lose government contracts or debates over insurance mandates; they're threatened, beaten, imprisoned and even murdered.

Here's a snapshot of what was going on around the world at the precise moment Americans were marking the July 4 holiday:

• Fr. Joseph Zhao Hongchun, apostolic administrator of the Chinese diocese of Harbin, was taken into police custody July 4 to prevent him from galvanizing opposition to the illicit ordination of a new Harbin bishop orchestrated by the government. He was detained for three days and released only after the ordination took place.
• New auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai was placed under house arrest in a seminary after he publicly resigned from the government-controlled "Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics" during his ordination Mass on July 7, which took place with the pope's blessing.
• Rev. Kantharaj Hanumanthappa, a Pentecostal pastor in the Indian state of Karnataka, was leading a prayer service July 4 when 20 radical Hindus stormed in to accuse the Christians of proselytizing, threatening them if they didn't leave. A police complaint was filed, but no action has been taken.
• The private home of Pastor Ramgopal, a Pentecostal minister in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, was raided by police allied with the Hindu radicals. The pastor was reportedly told, "Either you go away and never come back or we'll arrest you." He was released only after signing a statement promising not to lead any more prayer services in the area. Read more

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Reuters

"After today's ordination, I would devote every effort to episcopal ministry. It is inconvenient for me to serve the CPA post any more," Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai told the congregation at the ceremony.

About 1000 people in St Ignatius' Cathedral, Shanghai, responded with long and thunderous applause, reported UCANews.

Bishop Ma is the first "open" Chinese bishop in recent years to announce publicly during an episcopal ordination his intention to give up his offices in the CPA. He had been vice chair of the Shanghai CPA and a member of the standing committee of the national CPA.

"He needs to have much courage to speak these words as there are many government officials present. These words are not spoken to Catholics but to the officials," said one person who attended the ordination.

About 30 priests concelebrated the ordination Mass but most clergy in Shanghai's "open" Church community decided to follow their conscience and avoided concelebrating with an illicitly ordained bishop who was present, sources said.

That prelate, Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu of Mindong, did not lay hands on Bishop Ma, which came as a pleasant surprise to the priests who had avoided the ordination.

Meanwhile, the Vatican is considering its response to the illicit ordination of Father Joseph Yue Fusheng, also a CPA official, as bishop of Harbin city on July 6.

Five Vatican-approved bishops were reported to have taken part in the ceremony at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Harbin city, the capital of Heilongjiang province.

The Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples had earlier warned those intending to participate that they faced automatic excommunication.

Sources:

UCANews

Catholic News Agency

Image: UCANews