Communist Chinese Regime Arrests Catholic Priests During U.S. Vice President's Visit

In addition to the Communist Chinese regime's crimes against humanity such as forced abortion and sterilization, they also persecute Christians and other religious believers - with a special hatred directed against the Catholic Church. This Catholic Vice President failed to show either the courage demanded by his office or the fidelity called for by his profession of the Catholic faith.  

BEIJING, China (Catholic Online) - We recently reported on the failure of the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, to decry the evil "one child" policy enforced by the Communist Regime ruling mainland China in his recent diplomatic visit. The article was entitled "Silent: Vice President Biden Fails to Condemn China's Forced Abortion Policy"  We were not alone in strongly decrying the Vice president's comments. He spoke clearly in his prepared remarks and said that he "understood" this evil policy which compels women to be sterilized and forcibly aborted. He further said he and would not "second guess" it. Yet he also knows that this policy has caused the death of 400 million children in the womb. So strong was the outcry over these remarks that a Biden spokeswoman named Kendra Barkoff issued a statement on Tuesday saying: "The Obama administration strongly opposes all aspects of China's coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilization." Well, the Vice presidents word speak for themselves and after the fact efforts to deny its plain language will not undo the damage. As a Catholic News Source, we expressed our particular repugnance over the fact that this Catholic Vice President did not have the courage to stand up against the regime and defend the fundamental human right to life. Sadly, this was consistent with Vice Presidents failure to defend children in the womb here at home. However, we also addressed another failure in this Catholic Vice President's Diplomacy, his failure to address the Communist regimes' denial of another fundamental human right, the right to Religious Freedom. In particular, we decried the failure of this Catholic Vice President to call upon the Regime to cease its persecution against the Catholic Church. Asia news reported on Wednesday that on the very weekend the Vice President was affirming this brutal regime - in order to curry favor in our debtor/creditor relationship -  the regime's police were arresting Catholic priests and  lay men and women who refused to renounce their faith. Wang Zhicheng of the Asia News Agency reported in an article entitled  "Tianshui: police arrest dozens of underground priests and lay faithful":

"A group of priests and laity from the underground community of Tianshui (Gansu) were arrested by the security forces last weekend. Among them are the administrator of the underground diocese, Fr. John Baptist Wang Ruohan; retired Bishop Casmir Wang Milu; Father John Wang Ruowang; as well as several other priests and dozens of parish lay leaders. Bishop Wang and the two fathers Wang are brothers. They are being held in different places and subjected to political sessions. "So far, the underground diocese of Tianshui had maintained a comfortable relationship with the police and government authorities. The two communities, the official and underground, have a total of 20 thousand faithful and 27 priests, 15 of which belong to the underground community.. According to observers, the arrests aim to forcibly convince members of the underground - with more priests than the official church - to accept the candidate wanted by the Patriotic Association (PA) and prevent an underground priest being elected bishop. Already in its program last year, the United Front highlighted the urgency of electing a "friendly" bishop. "The PA has been practicing the policy of preventing the election of underground priests for some time, arresting several diocesan administrators. In recent months, two other priests were arrested, possible candidates for the episcopate. In early August, Fr. Chen Hailong, underground priest of the diocese of Xuanhua (Hebei) was released after his arrest in April. During his 4 months detention he was abused and brainwashed to push to him to join the Patriotic Association and reject his bonds with the pope "In early August, Fr Wang Chengli was arrested. He has been an underground priest of 48 years, administrator of the diocese of Heze (Canzhou, Shandong). Under pressure to deny the link with the Pope, he was left for days without eating and drinking. For several years now the PA has been struggling against the Vatican to appoint bishops compliant with the regime. In fact since last November, it has supported the ordination of three bishops without Papal mandate. The Catholic Diocese of Tianshui have launched a prayer campaign for the liberation of their priests and faithful." In addition to the Communist Chinese regime's crimes against humanity such as forced abortion and sterilization, they also persecute Christians and other religious believers - with a special hatred directed against the Catholic Church. This denial of the fundamental Right to Religious Freedom also demanded a statement from the U.S. Vice President. This Catholic Vice President failed to show either the courage demanded by his office or the fidelity called for by his profession of the Catholic faith.  

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