China releases underground bishop after 10 years in prison

Published: 2006-08-28

ROME (CNS) -- After 10 years in prison, an underground Chinese bishop has been released and has received government permission to carry out his pastoral duties without registering with the country's state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. Chinese authorities freed 57-year-old Auxiliary Bishop Francis An Shuxin of Baoding in Hebei province Aug. 24. The bishop had been arrested in 1996 following a government-ordered raid on the diocese's underground seminary, which he headed. According to an Aug. 26 report by the Italian-based missionary news agency, AsiaNews, Bishop An was released because he accepted government recognition for being a Catholic bishop in China. He did not have to become a member of the government-approved patriotic association, which rejects papal authority and elects bishops without Vatican approval. The U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said in an Aug. 24 statement that the bishop now has a work permit to serve as a Catholic bishop and to carry out his pastoral duties in China.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .