Police arrest two Chinese underground priests
10/28/2005
hONG KONG (CNS) -- Two underground priests in eastern China's
Wenzhou Diocese were detained by public security officers after
celebrating a Mass to mark the end of the Year of the
Eucharist.
On Oct. 27, police arrested the Wenzhou vicar general, Father Shao
Zhumin, and Father Paul Jiang Sunian, chancellor, reported UCA
News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.
The two priests and five other priests, all of the same underground
church community, had celebrated a Mass for about 600 Catholics at
Yongqiang parish.
After the Mass, Father Shao, some other priests, nuns and lay
Catholics went to a restaurant for dinner. Public security officers
seized Father Shao when he approached the counter to order food,
while the other Catholics waited inside a room, the sources told
UCA News Oct. 28.
Alerted to the arrest, the lay Catholics quietly escorted the other
priests out of the restaurant through a kitchen door to prevent
their arrests, the sources said.
Father Jiang, who did not join the group for dinner, headed back to
his parish, according to the sources, who said public security
officers took him into custody when he stopped at a toll
booth.
