Report: China Detains Four Priests From Underground Catholic Church
ICC Note: The Chinese government continues to arrest Christian leaders simply because their church does not register with the government.
7/30/07 China (AP) – BEIJING : Four priests from China ‘s underground Roman Catholic church have been detained by police, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Sunday.
Three priests were detained Tuesday in the northern region of Inner Mongolia after fleeing their hometown to avoid arrest for refusing to join the state-sanctioned church, the Cardinal Kung Foundation announced. It said the fourth priest was detained in early July in the northern province of Hebei following a motorcycle accident
China ‘s Catholics are permitted to worship only in churches run by a government-monitored group with no ties to the Vatican . But millions who remain loyal to the pope worship in secret “house churches…”
Officers who answered the phone at police headquarters in the cities of Xilinhot and Erlianhot in Xilin Gol said they had no information on the cases. They all refused to give their names.
The fourth priest was Cui Tai, 50, of Hebei ‘s Zhuolu county, the group said .
