Underground clergy detained in China over Christmas season

Published: 2005-01-11

HONG KONG (CNS) -- Chinese church sources reported several instances in which underground Catholic clergy were detained during the Christmas season. On Jan. 3, police detained Xuanhua Bishop Peter Zhao Zhendong, five priests he had ordained two weeks earlier and two other priests involved in the ordination ceremony, Catholic sources told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The 85-year-old bishop and priests were held in a guesthouse in Wei County, where each reportedly signed a document on or near Jan. 8 saying he would not perform his episcopal or priestly ministry, the sources said. Xuanhua, in Hebei province, is about 75 miles northwest of Beijing. Public security officials have revealed no information about Bishop Zhao's detention, or what action might still be taken against him, UCA News reported the sources as saying. The two priests who joined him for the ordination ceremony had been freed, but were told to report to the officials later, they added.

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