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Protecting confessional could
cost clergy 14 years in jail
A new law introduced by Beijing could force priests in Hong Kong to reveal the
secrets of the confessional or risk a jail sentence of 14 years.
Thirty-five years after tanks and troops moved into Tiananmen Square, the
persecution of Chinese Christians, which is the worst it has been since the Cultural
Revolution, is spreading to the former British territory.
Release International partners said the UK Government had a responsibility to
stand up for freedom of faith there.
June 4 was 35 years to the day that China crushed the Tiananmen Square protests.
Following the destruction of the democracy movement, China has progressively
stepped up the persecution of Christians in the country.
The latest report by the United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) gave warning that China’s crackdown on Christians was
tightening. That persecution has extended to Hong Kong and beyond China’s
national borders.
Our partner said that, while persecution remains less severe than on the mainland,
religious freedom in Hong Kong was under growing threat.
Protestant pastor Garry Pang Moon-yuen was the first Hong Kong clergyman to be
convicted under the recent National Security Law. He was jailed in 2022 after being
accused of preaching sedition.
Now legislation passed in March this year could force Catholic priests to reveal
the secrets of the confessional. Under Article 23, they could face a 14-year
prison sentence if they refuse to reveal so-called crimes of treason shared during
confession.
Kazakh worship services raided
Police in Shu District of southern Kazakhstan raided four worship meetings
of three unregistered Protestant communities and issued six summary fines
in March and April. A local court handed down another fine. The leader of one
church, 77-year-old Pastor Andrei Boiprav, awaits a court hearing, despite his
health condition. Church members say the situation is causing ‘a threat to his life
and health’.
The three churches subjected to police raids are all unregistered with the
state. Two are of the Baptist Council of Churches, who choose not to seek state
registration. Exercising freedom of religion or belief without state registration is
illegal and punishable.
‘What has been happening in the last month in Shu has aroused serious concern
among evangelical communities, which have experienced persecution for their
religious activity,’ local Council of Churches Baptists noted in April. The Baptists’
activity ‘is not illegal or extremist’, church members insisted.
(Source: Forum 18)
Pakistani Christian
succumbs to injuries
A 74-year-old Pakistani
Christian, Nazeer Masih Gill,
died in the Combined Military
Hospital Rawalpindi in Punjab
province on June 3, just over
a week after he was violently
attacked by a mob following an
accusation of blasphemy.
On May 25 a message was
broadcast over mosque
loudspeakers in the Mujahid
colony of Sargodha district
accusing Nazeer of burning pages
of the Koran, prompting a mob of
more than 1,000 people to attack
his home and the shoe factory
he had owned in the area for six
years.
The mob threw stones and
bricks at Nazeer and beat him
with steel rods before he was
rescued by police. He was placed
in a critical condition ward at
the hospital due to his multiple
head injuries and on June 2 was
put on a ventilator. He died in
the early hours of June 3 due to
multiple organ failure and was
swiftly buried in his hometown
of Sargodha, where police have
assured his family of protection.
A tense calm prevailed in
Sargodha on the Sunday
following the attack, with
police arresting 26 Muslims
in a case registered against 44
named suspects and 300 to 400
unidentified rioters, sources said.
(Sources: Christian Daily International-
Morning Star News; CSW)
Faith
under
fireBelievers pray in Hong Kong, where a
new law could force priests to disclose
the secrets of the confessional