AsiaNews Launches Campaign Petitioning Chinese Parliament to Free Bishops and Priests

March 10, 2005

The Catholic online news service AsiaNews announced a campaign March 5 to liberate 37 unregistered Catholic clerics detained or prevented from carrying out their ministries in China. The announcement was timed to coincide with the opening of the annual plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC). AsiaNews characterized the announcement and the list of clerics as "our petition to the almost 3,000 delegates to the NPC, calling on them to free these bishops and priests, and to allow the people of China to enjoy full freedom of religion."

A number of Christian news agencies, newspapers, journals and Web sites have supported or publicized the campaign. The Pontifical Institute for the Foreign Missions (PIME), a Catholic religious order, produces AsiaNews.