Just hours before the closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, a detail of six security agents arrested Bishop Julius Jia Zhigou at his cathedral in Zhengding and his whereabouts remain unknown. Bishop Jia, age 73 and in frail health, endured 15 years in prison under Mao, and has been arrested at least a dozen times since, all for the crime of his faith and loyalty to Rome on matters of religion. He has been living under house arrest since 1989.

Labels: bishop Jia, China, persecution

On June 30th, the Vatican posted an open letter from Pope Benedict XVI to all Catholics in China, patriotic and underground alike. The letter resulted from a January meeting between the pope and his best advisors on how best to deal with China. Rumors of the letter's imminent release circulated around every major day on the Church calendar for five months, but the pope took his time and the language of the final document is precise and clear.

The Vatican gave Beijing a copy of the pope’s letter several days before it was publicly posted, to provide the Chinese government time to form an appropriate response. In the West, the letter was widely praised as conciliatory and many had hoped Beijing would receive it in the spirit in which it was sent and open a formal dialog with the Holy See.

Beijing's response was to block domestic Internet access to the Vatican website, and to play Whack-a-mole with any other site that posted the pope's letter. Beijing offered no official reaction to the pope's letter, though a few high-ranking members of the patriotic church approved of the absence of anti-communist rhetoric present in previous Vatican pronouncements. Distribution of the pope's letter in China is a crime and several Catholic priests have reportedly been subjected to brainwashing and other forms of reeducation to show them the error of their ways.

While I don't expect The Secret Cardinal to win a rave review from the book critics at China's People's Daily, I am pretty sure it won't be decried as an evil document and my readers subjected to abuse far beyond that experienced by any Al Qeda detainee. Actually, I doubt very much my novel will ever legally see the light of day in China, and I expect my web sites will be blocked in China as soon as Beijing views the book trailer.

Labels: China, letter, persecution, pope, Vatican