Officials Detain Catholic Priest in Hebei Province, Move Bishop to Unknown Location

Officials detained Wang Wenzhi, an unregistered Catholic priest of Yongnian diocese in Hebei province, on December 11, according to a January 4 report of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (CKF), a U.S. NGO that monitors the religious freedom of Chinese Catholics. Security officials detained Father Wang after he finished celebrating Mass in the private home of a Catholic believer in Fengfeng city. Officials have pressured him to register with the Catholic Patriotic Association, the organization through which the government controls the registered Catholic community. The CKF reported that officials are holding Father Wang in the Guangping county detention center, while a January 5 AsiaNews report said that Father Wang is being held in a hotel.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation also reported the disappearance of Bishop Han Dingxiang, the unregistered Catholic bishop of Yongnian diocese in Hebei province. According to the CKF, officials detained Bishop Han in 1999. Officials held Bishop Han in a government-run hostel, but have now transferred him to an unknown location. Bishop Han is one of three Catholic bishops whose whereabouts are unknown. The others are Bishop Su Zhimin, the unregistered bishop of Baoding diocese in Hebei, who has been missing since 1997, and Bishop An Shuxin, Su’s auxiliary bishop, missing since 1996. In November 2005, officials detained five groups of Catholic clerics in Hebei.

For more information on Catholics in China, see the CECC 2005 Annual Report, Section III(d).