HONG KONG (AsiaNews) — John Cardinal Tong, bishop of Hong Kong, issued an urgent appeal on August 13 against the demolition of crosses in the province of Zhejiang, a practice that has already touched more than 1,000 crosses in Catholic or Protestant churches.
In his appeal, the prelate calls on the Chinese government to stop these “unlawful acts” because many dismantled crosses and buildings had all the required permits.
The campaign against the crosses and Christian buildings began in early 2014, when Zhejiang Party Secretary Xia Baolong saw that the skyline of the city of Wenzhou (Zhejiang province) had “too many crosses.”
Many Christians suspect that the real aim is to reduce the impact and influence of Christian communities, both official and underground, in Chinese society, which has seen a dramatic rise in conversions.
The campaign has sparked resistance among Catholic and Protestant believers, clergymen, and bishops, who use open letters, social media, and demonstrations to express their dissent against this blatant injustice. Some believers and priests have been arrested.
As the campaign against cross destruction finds support abroad, Hong Kong’s Cardinal Tong calls on Hong Kong Catholics to pray and fast for religious freedom in China, sharing “the sufferings of their fellow Christians in Zhejiang.”
Cardinal Tong seems to be responding to a request from Bishop Vincent Zhu Weifang, the official bishop of Wenzhou, and his priests, who proposed rosaries and fasting to protect the faith and the crosses. Here is Cardinal Tong’s appeal, followed by an earlier report from AsiaNews about an open letter from the priests of Wenzhou and their call to “be silent no more!”
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The Sufferings Of The Cross — An Urgent Appeal
The cross is the sign most representative of the Christian faith. As Christians, we must follow Christ. That requires us to carry the cross together with Jesus Christ.
Over the past two years, the crosses erected at over a thousand churches, Christian or Catholic, in Zhejiang province have been dismantled by force. Those dismantled include many that have been lawfully constructed with permits.
In some of these incidents, members of the clergy and congregation, during their lawful act of defending their faith, have been detained, causing a lot of tension in local parishes. These incidents have caused much anxiety among Christians, local and overseas, about the policies of the government in regard to freedom of religion.
With utmost sincerity and urgency, I wish to make the following appeal:
1) That the Central Government and authorities concerned liaise with the provincial authorities in Zhejiang province to investigate into what has happened; that all unlawful acts of dismantling crosses be stopped; and that all the parties concerned stick to the principle of “the supremacy of the constitution, the rule of law and ruling the country according to the law.”
2) That all Catholics in Hong Kong choose some forms of penance, such as fast and abstinence, and that they especially pray for religious freedom, the dignity of the faith, and share the sufferings of their fellow Christians in Zhejiang.
John Cardinal Tong
August 13, 2015
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“Be Silent No More!”
Say Wenzhou Priests
Communist officials responsible for the anti-cross campaign in Wenzhou (Zhejiang province) have been acting “with a vengeance” going beyond their rights and duties. For this reason, “they must be brought to justice” before China’s “peaceful development” does not fall “into yet another calamity,” reports AsiaNews.
For this reason, the local clergymen in this diocese of southeastern China are ready to do anything, even die for a just cause, protecting Christianity’s sacred symbol.
What follows is their letter published in late July:
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“Cry Out! Be Silent No More!” — An open letter by Catholic clergy from Wenzhou to all Chinese Christians and citizens:
Last year the Zhejiang provincial government began a “Three Rectifications and One Demolition” campaign; over time, it got worse and worse, and now, its nature has changed entirely. At present, the campaign is a naked attempt to rip down the crosses atop every single church. Across our [diocese], we have been neither servile nor cowed — we have forborne, we have ardently prayed, we have communicated rationally, and we have calmly observed, all the while waiting for the dark clouds to pass.
But certain people have not only not slowed down, but have become more aggressive, as though they were facing a mortal enemy in their targeting of a symbol of universal love — the cross. They have defied the wishes of the masses and come up with the “Zhejiang Provincial Regulations on Religious Buildings,” which fails even basic jurisprudence, cheating the people and recklessly attempting to carry out their campaign of tearing down every single cross.
Not only this, but our peaceful petitions, as well as rallying the support of parishioners, have been treated as illegal conduct.
It’s truly like the ancient Chinese saying: “The official is allowed to set fires, but the ordinary folk can’t light their lamps.” But “trap water in a stream and there will be a disastrous flood; shut up the voices of the public, and a worse disaster awaits.”
Is it really the case that a government which says it serves the people is going to take the country back to what Liang Qichao decried as “a government that excels in nothing but repressing its own citizens”?
The more they try to suppress the call for justice, the more they demonstrate the severity of the social crisis, the fragile confidence in their rule, and their inability to get to grips with the matter.
If they want to strike out at the cross as a means of treating such an urgent disease, it will only plunge China — which, after making it through the Great Leap Forward and the disastrous Cultural Revolution, is only now finding peaceful development — into yet another calamity.
As individuals with human rights granted by God, every single person has freedom of belief. In order to safeguard the cross, and to preserve our most basic right to believe, we will keep watch and defend one another, and we will mount a rational and reasonable resistance.
As citizens of China, we yearn for comprehensive and deeper democracy and rule of law. As for those senior officials who force their subordinates to participate, issuing commands to make them carry out demolition work; and those who trample upon the constitution, who willfully defile the dignity of the law, who violate administrative procedure, who use their power to confuse the law, and who lead the way in undermining the rule of law, they must be resolutely exposed and resisted, and they must be brought to justice.
As the sons and daughters of China, we all yearn for an environment of long-term peace and stability. We absolutely can’t go back to where “the ordinary people suffer whether in a period of prosperity or decline”; we must absolutely not allow anything to go against the tide of harmonious development.
All Christians in China have all along carried a sense of mission with them, honoring the Lord and benefiting their fellowman. At the same time, we have longed for a fair and tolerant cultural, religious, and social environment in which to adapt the Christian religion to Chinese culture.
Zhejiang provincial authorities have been demolishing crosses with a vengeance. Is that your understanding of the signification of religion recently called for by Chairman Xi Jinping?
At a juncture where “the wind is sweeping through the tower heralding a rising storm in the mountains,” we will even more so take as our great responsibility the rejuvenation of the Chinese people, and we will more firmly believe that we too are the backbone and the blessing of the Chinese nation.
Watching one cross after another being torn down, we have cried out in anger and shed tears in sorrow. But we will wisely and carefully use every method available to re-erect the crosses. When one cross is removed, one million crosses will be erected: in every person’s heart, along the avenues and in the alleyways, and in the home of every family.
The Church has throughout its history grown and thrived under either persecution or the favor of the ruler. We earnestly beseech the Lord’s mercy, to grant us the courage to die for what is right, for the peace of the nation, for the true rise of the Chinese nation, to make whatever sacrifice is required.
As it is written in the Bible (Amos 5:24): “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” For the freedom to believe, for the dignity of the law, for the continuous development of China, for the long-term welfare of the Chinese people, all believers across the whole of China, those tens of millions filled with a sense of justice — Be silent no more! Let us all cry out!
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