08/29/2022 China (International Christian Concern) – An app designed for Chinese Catholics, called CathAssist, was shut down last week. The company behind it was unable to get a license from the Chinese government to continue operations.
According to the CathAssist team, “Since the implementation of [new rules] on March 1, we have made various efforts to apply for an Internet Religious Information Service License. We have taken various actions including suspending sharing, changing our name, adjusting content … but getting a license requires a much larger reduction in functionality and content.”
A Catholic from a northern Chinese province said that he had the app for a long time and that it stopped working on August 24.
Referring to the company running the app, the man said, “[They] worked hard for several months [to get the license], but in the end, they failed, so it has been shut down.”
He continued, “I used CathAssist to listen to the priest explaining the Bible every day, as well as a lot of other Catholic spiritual content. I felt I was missing out on a lot when I found out it was no longer available.”
It is suspected that the app was shut down as part of a wider crackdown on the Catholic Church in China and renewed efforts to infiltrate the church with Chinese socialist thought.
Wang Yi, a high-ranking Chinese official who heads the parliamentary advisory body, recently told Catholic church elders that their faith must “better adapt itself to a socialist society.” ICC reported last week on the disturbing takeover of the Catholic Church in China by the Chinese Communist Party.
Please pray for Christians in China who are suffering under an oppressive political regime.
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