Jailed Jesuits

China cracks down

While dealing with doctrinal problems in Rome, the Jesuits are also facing life-threatening new trouble in mainland China. Without any official announcement, the government has reportedly arrested at least four Jesuit priests in Shanghai, along with several Roman Catholic laymen. The most prominent of those rounded up in the crackdown is Father Zhu Hongshen (known to Westerners as Vincent Chu), 65, who was released from prison in 1979 after serving 23 years. Church sources in Hong Kong say that the Communist regime has charged him with giving false information to his numerous foreign visitors and with following orders from the Vatican.

The second charge springs from the increasing tension between China's officially recognized "Patriotic" Catholic Church, which follows Communist policy by totally rejecting papal authority, and a "Silent Church" movement of unknown size that remains loyal to Rome. The conflict between the two sides intensified last June when the regime withdrew its tacit recognition of Jesuit Bishop Dominic Tang as head of the Canton diocese. The ouster came just after Pope John Paul II asserted Tang's Vatican connection by appointing him Archbishop of Canton. Tang's Communist-approved successor in Canton, Bishop Ye Yinyun, has continued to press the battle against the Vatican, accusing visiting priests from Hong Kong of efforts to "spread rumors and disrupt the work of the Chinese church." The new arrests mark an ominous escalation. Outside observers cannot yet assess how far the toughening government attitude will go. But many of those arrested are elderly, and friends fear they would not survive long prison sentences.

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