Passion and Pain

In the 1950s, Chinese Communists attacked the Roman Catholic Church for its continued loyalty to Rome. The Catholic Patriotic Association was formed and bishops were ordained by the Chinese authorities without Papal permission. To this day, the Chinese Government will not allow the Vatican to appoint bishops. In response, loyal Catholics formed underground churches. As a result, many priests have been imprisoned – some for more than two decades – for refusing to accept a Communist-controlled Church. According to a 2002 US State Department report, there are thought to be some thirty-seven Catholic bishops operating "underground," ten to fifteen of whom may be in prison or under house-arrest.

In Hebei, where an estimated half of the country's Catholics reside, local authorities have been known to force underground priests and believers to choose between joining the official Church or face punishment such as fines, job-loss, detentions, and having their children barred from school. Some Catholics have been forced into hiding. Also in 2002, the authorities detained Catholic underground Bishop Jia Zhiguo, of Hebei, for several days before the start of Holy Week, in a failed attempt to pressure him to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. Bishop Su Zhimin, has been missing since his arrest in 1997, despite repeated inquiries from the international community on his status and whereabouts. At least three other underground Catholic bishops remain under detention in Hebei.

Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), report that a number of Catholic priests and lay leaders have been beaten and abused in recent years, and that many have been arrested and detained for various lengths of time. Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang, of Shanghai, remains under surveillance and often has his movements restricted. Bishop Zeng Jingmu, who was released from a labour camp in 1998, was arrested in Jiangxi in September 2000. The Government denies his arrest, and also denies that it is detaining the elderly Bishop Yang Shudao, who was arrested by a large group of police in February 2000. No information has been provided as to his whereabouts or condition. Authorities also detained Bishop Shi Enxiang, on Palm Sunday 2001 in Beijing.

Like their Catholic brothers and sisters, Protestants, particularly evangelicals, have suffered for their faith in China. Protestant house-church leaders Allen Yuan and Wang Mingdao, for instance, spent more than twenty years in a labor camp for their Christian faith. On February 5, 2002, a Xiamen court sentenced three members of an evangelical Protestant preaching team to seven years in prison for "using a cult organization to violate the law".

In April 2001, seventeen Christians were arrested and accused of leading or being members of a ―heretical religious organization‖ called the South China (Huanan) Church. In December 2001, Pastor Gong Shengliang, his niece, Li Ying, and three others were sentenced to death on a wide range of criminal charges, including rape, arson, and assault.

In October 2002, the Hubei High People‘s Court overturned the death sentences of Pastor Gong, Li Ying, and the three others – Xu Fuming, Hu Yong, and Gong Bangkun. They are still in prison, however, awaiting a retrial.

The evidence used to convict Pastor Gong and the others included forced confessions obtained from three young women who are members of the church. In letters written to their families that were later published, the three describe how they were tortured by police until they agreed to sign statements claiming that they had been raped by Pastor Gong.