Chinese authorities still refuse to release body of deceased ‘underground’ bishop
February 25, 2015
Nearly a month after Chinese officials said that Bishop Cosma Shi Enxiang was dead, his relatives are still waiting for his remains.
“All we want is to be able to bury him,” his nephew said. “They should give us the body out of human dignity.”
Bishop Shi had been arrested on April 13, 2001. Since that time the government had not released any information about his condition or his whereabouts. No charges against him were ever revealed.
An official of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, by which the government seeks to control the Church, told Agence France-Presse that she heard “heard” the bishop had died but offered no further details.
The bishop, a leader of the “underground” Church loyal to the Holy See, spent 52 years of his life in prisons and labor camps because of his resistance of government control over the Church in China.
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Further information:
- Missing, presumed dead: underground Chinese bishop, aged 93 (AFP)
- Chinese authorities refuse to release body of deceased 'underground' bishop (CWN, 2/9)
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