Persecutions worldwide
Missions. In ten years, at least a thousand missionaries gave their lives for the Gospel
The most significant figure for the mission of the Church, stressed Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, is that of the number of missionaries, ordained or not, who have born witness to their fidelity to Christ and his Church, at the cost of their life, to wit at least a thousand in the past ten years. The Cardinal noted that the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which is entrusted to him, has pastoral care of 39% of the dioceses of the world, that is 1,075 ecclesiastical districts (478 in Africa, 85 in America, 453 in Asia, 14 in Europe and 56 in Oceania)
Concerning those consecrated to the mission in the Catholic Church, the Cardinal gave the following figures : 85,000 priests (52,000 diocesan and 33,000 religious), 28,000 non-ordained religious, 450,000 sisters and 1,650,000 catechists.
India: The government of Gujarat wants to prevent conversions
The government of Gujarat in North west India announced yesterday that it will introduce a law making forced religious conversions illegal. The Christian churches of Tamil Nadu subject to these laws, have denounced them as a veiled method of limiting their activities.
The law is not far removed from those measures already in place which forbid forced conversions in other Indian states. Last year a similar order, approved by the Tamil Nadu government in the south of the country, provoked protests from several political and civil groups, as well as the Christian churches, who fear that these measures will drastically limit the activities of the minority religions in the country.
China: Catholic priest arrested for celebrating Christmas Mass
The Chinese governments repression of the underground Catholic Church continues relentlessly. One victim of this has been Dong Yingmu, 37, a priest from Baoding (Hubei province). He was imprisoned on 12th February for celebrating Christmas Midnight Mass on 24th December last year.
According to some estimations, the patriotic church has 4 million members, while the clandestine church numbers more than 10 million. The Cardinal Kung Foundation states that at least 9 priests of the unofficial diocese of Baoding are under house arrest, in prison, or are serving 3 years hard labour. It also says that it has no news of the Bishop of Baoding, Bishop Su Zhimin, 73, since 1997, while his auxiliary, Bishop Francesco An Shuxin, 53, disappeared in 1996.
Source: APIC
Russia: latest expulsion of a Catholic priest
The police in Pushkin, in the Saint Petersburg region of Russia, have cancelled the visa of the Catholic priest Bronislaw Czaplicki. He is given two weeks to leave the country, Vatican Radio announced on 22nd February.
Fr.Czaplicki, a Pole from the diocese of Katovice, has worked in the Russian Federation for 10 years. He was parish priest in Pushkin, professor at the seminary of St. Petersburg and president of the Ecclesiastical Commission for Catholic Martyrs of 20th century Russia. This is the sixth expulsion of a member of the Catholic clergy from Russia. On the diplomatic front, in order to put himself in a good light, Putin has invited the Pope to visit Russia. As long as the facts do not match up to the words, the Holy See let it be understood that prudence is required.
