Officials have reportedly closed or demolished some 450 "illegal" religious venues in Zhejiang, while a bishop of the eastern Chinese province detained for a year is said to have lost his memory.
According to news reports from Zhejiang and outside China, 239 religious buildings in the province have been shut down since mid-November and another 210 destroyed, many in Wenzhou city´s Ouhai district.
A Catholic official in Cangnan county, also covered by Wenzhou diocese, told UCA News Dec. 14 that at least three Catholic churches including the one in Linjiayuan were among the demolished structures.
There are 100,000 Catholics in Wenzhou diocese, counting members of the government-approved "open" and "underground" communities, he said.
The campaign to maintain social stability by eliminating unlawful religious venues has targeted not only underground Catholic churches and Protestant house churches but also unregistered Buddhist and Taoist temples, reports say.
A source from the underground Catholic community in Zhejiang confirmed to UCA News Dec. 13 that an unregistered church in Linjiayuan village was among 100 religious venues demolished in Cangnan county.
The layman added, though, that a Catholic parish church in Cangnan´s Longgang town, where some 50 religious venues were destroyed, had been registered with the religious affairs office and was not harmed.
"The communist officials fear losing control in the province as more people find their faith in religion," he said. The campaign, he added, targets Wenzhou in particular because people there are more open to religious beliefs.
Reverend Chan Kim-kwong of the Protestant´s Hong Kong Christian Council told UCA News Dec. 13 that about 40 "illegally built" Protestant churches had been demolished recently, some of them reportedly involved in land disputes.
Destruction of religious venues is not unusual in Zhejiang province, the Protestant leader said, recalling that years ago he saw more than 1,000 religious buildings destroyed in the province in a single year.
The Wenzhou area is a stronghold of both the underground Catholic community and China´s Protestant Church.
In 1996 the population of Wenzhou city and surrounding areas was 7 million. Wenzhou is 1,440 kilometers southeast of Beijing.
The area has seen a rapid growth in privately built temples as Wenzhou emigrants have sent money back to thank deities for protecting their businesses in Europe. Many of the Chinese restaurant owners and workers in Europe are natives of Wenzhou and other parts of Zhejiang.
Privately built temples have become a status symbol in Wenzhou, according to Reverend Chan. He said it is almost like a competition -- the larger the temple, the richer and hence more prestigious the family.
Meanwhile, clandestinely ordained Bishop James Lin Xili of Wenzhou, who was arrested by Public Security Bureau officers in September 1999, is now under the care of the open Church, the lay Catholic source told UCA News.
Bishop Lin is reportedly unable to work or to remember things after suffering psychological torture during a year of detention and may have Alzheimer´s disease, the source said.
He added that two other Zhejiang priests are under house arrest but that no information is available on Father Paul Jiang Sunian, who was sentenced to six years in jail for printing 120,000 copies of religious books.
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