5,000 attend funeral for Chinese bishop; coajdutor still in custody

September 13, 2016

More than 5,000 people attended the funeral for Bishop Zhu Weifang of Wenzhou, China, while government officials continued to hold his coajdutor bishop, the AsiaNews service reports.

Although police had sought to limit attendance at Bishop Zhu's funeral, a massive crowd gathered at the village of Ma Qiao, where he was buried. 

Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, the coadjutor bishop of Wenzhou, who had already been designated by the Holy See as successor to Bishop Zhu, was taken into custody by police a few days before the older bishop's death, and taken on a "vacation tour" of northwest China. Local Catholics assume that Bishop Shao-- a leader of the "underground" Church who has not been recognized by the Beijing regime-- has been removed from the local scene because officials intend to install their own government-approved bishop without Rome's approval.

 

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Further information:

• More than 5,000 faithful attend the funeral of the bishop of Wenzhou. Mgr Peter Shao is still "on vacation" with the police (AsiaNews)
• Confirmed: Chinese officials abduct bishop (CWN, 9/8)