– Tej Francis
XUANHUA, CHINA
FOUR UNDERGROUND PRIESTS REPORTEDLY DISAPPEARED IN CHINA’S HEBEI PROVINCE
(CNA/EWTN News) Four priests from the underground Catholic Church in China’s Hebei province have been taken into police custody for indoctrination, AsiaNews reported Monday. The publication wrote Nov. 5 that the priests are being “indoctrinated on the religious policy of the Chinese government … because they refuse to enroll in the Patriotic Association.”
The abducted priests are Fr. Zhang Guilin and Fr. Wang Zhong of the Diocese of Chongli-Xiwanzi, and Fr. Su Guipeng and Fr. Zhao He of the Diocese of Xuanhua. Fr. Zhao He may be under house arrest, according to some sources.
Reports of the destruction or desecration of Catholic churches and shrines have come from across China, including the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, and Shandong.
The Church in mainland China has been divided for some 60 years between the underground Church, which is persecuted and whose Episcopal appointments are frequently not acknowledged by Chinese authorities, and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a government-sanctioned organization.
A Sept. 22 agreement between the Holy See and Beijing was intended to normalize the situation of China’s Catholics and unify the underground Church and the Patriotic Association.
While the exact terms of the agreement between China and the Vatican were not released, Zen is not optimistic about the future of the underground church. While Pope Francis could still “veto” the nomination of a state-approved bishop, “how many times can he do that, really?”
Since the agreement in September, two CPCA bishops were invited to attend the synod on youth. These men are “known to be close to the Chinese government,” and their attendance at the synod is “an insult to the good bishops of China.”
MIAO, INDIA
THE BISHOP WHO REAPED A HUNDREDFOLD
(CNA) Many bishops spend their days carefully making plans to lead and manage the dioceses entrusted to them. Bishop George Pallipparambil of the Indian diocese of Miao is different. He says that in his diocese, the planning is done by God. His job, he says, is to listen and respond.
Officially, his diocese has only existed since 2005. But Bishop Pallipparambil has been tending a flock in rural northeastern India for nearly four decades, watching it grow from 900 baptized Catholics in 1979 to more than 90,000 today, nearly 20 percent of the local population.
When he arrived, he had no plan, no church and no rectory. When asked how it happened, he told CNA simply “God did it.” Until very recently, the diocese of Miao, situated along the Chinese border in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, was considered remote, nearly inaccessible.
When Pallipparambil arrived 40 years ago, the region was run by the Indian military as a kind of “state within a state.” Populated by ethnically Mongolian tribes often in violent conflict, it was, Pallipparambil recalls, “in a way forbidden for the Church.”
Originally from Kerala, in southern India, Pallipparambil assisted in setting up a school for tribal children who had migrated south, long before he ever thought of dedicating his ministry to India’s northeastern region. Today, the diocese has 28 priests, with another 68 from religious orders. They serve the 90,000 Catholics spread across the 17 thousand square miles of the diocese, much of it unreachable by car.
VATICAN CITY
POPE RECOGNIZES MARTYRDOM OF U.S. CHRISTIAN BROTHER
(CNS) Pope Francis has recognized the martyrdom of De La Salle Christian Brother James Miller, who was born in Wisconsin and was shot to death in Guatemala in 1982. The recognition of the martyrdom clears the way for his beatification; the date and location of the ceremony were not immediately announced.
Brother Miller, the U.S. martyr, was born Sept. 21, 1944, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He met the Christian Brothers at Pacelli High School there and, at the age of 15, entered the order’s juniorate in Missouri. After the novitiate, he taught Spanish, English and religion at Cretin High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, for three years. He also was in charge of school maintenance and served as the football coach.
In 1969, he was sent to Nicaragua, where he taught and helped build schools. Returning to the United States in 1979, he again taught at Cretin High School. But in January 1981, he was sent to Guatemala, where he taught at a secondary school in Huehuetenango and at a center that helped young indigenous people learn job and leadership skills.
On Feb. 13, 1982, he was shot several times by three hooded men and died instantly. No one was ever arrested for his murder. Funeral services were held in Guatemala and in St. Paul before he was buried in Polonia, Wisconsin.
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