Outspoken Cardinal Zen arrested in Hong Kong
May 19, 2022 · By UCA News Network for www.ucanews.com
Outspoken Cardinal Zen arrested in Hong Kong
The arrest of Hong Kong’s Cardinal Joseph Zen has sparked global outrage about communist China’s iron-fisted grip on freedoms and rights in the former British colony.
Hong Kong police granted bail to outspoken Cardinal Joseph Zen and three activists hours after arresting them on charges of “collusion with foreign forces.” The 90-year-old former bishop of Hong Kong was arrested along with senior advocate Margaret Ng, pop singer Denise Ho and academic Hui Po-keung on Wednesday.
Former lawmaker Cyd Ho was already imprisoned in a separate case. The arrestees were trustees of the now-defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund that lent support to pro-democracy protesters by paying their legal and medical bills amid a government crackdown in 2019.
The accused have been charged under the repressive national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020.
Cardinal Zen, a strong supporter of democracy and human rights and a staunch critic of extremely authoritarian China’s communist regime, is the highest-ranking Catholic clergy to be arrested under the draconian law. The arrests have sparked outrage around the world.
Cardinal Joseph Zen was arrested on May 11 under the national security law. (Photo: AFP)
Catholic leaders in the Philippines have expressed shock after Vice President Leni Robredo lost the presidential election to the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos by a huge margin.
Marcos Junior secured more than 31 million votes, while Robredo bagged about 15 million in the election held on Monday.
Many Catholic leaders publicly backed Robredo as Marcos Junior was seen a throwback to the martial law years when his father suppressed, tortured and murdered opponents while plundering millions of dollars of state funds. Catholic clergy grieved Robredo’s defeat and expressed fears that the return of the Marcos clan would open the door to authoritarianism and corruption.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas said that losing the election does not mean losing hope. He called on Robredo and her supporters to continue to be with people so that no plunderer can steal their dreams.
Catholic activists have deplored another mob lynching in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
A group of men lynched 45-year-old Muslim man Shamim Ansari last Friday as he tried to stop illegal loggers from felling trees in a village in Gumla district. In another case in January, a 32-year-old man was stoned to death after he was accused of timber theft.
Indian protesters raise slogans condemning a mob lynching in Jharkhand state at a demonstration in New Delhi on April 15, 2019. (Photo: Bijay Kumar Minj/UCA News)
While the latest brutality has socioeconomic overtones stemming from the dominance of business elites, Catholic activists have pointed to previous mob lynchings of minority Muslims and Christians that damaged communal harmony in the state and other parts of India.
Since the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, India has seen a rise in mob lynchings and vigilante attacks by radical Hindu groups on minority Muslims and Christians, often accusing them of religious conversion and consuming beef.
Catholic clergy and religious in Sri Lanka have made efforts for peace as the country reels from deadly violence amid a worsening economic crisis. Violent clashes broke out between anti-government protesters and pro-government supporters this week.
Tensions rose on Monday when a ruling party legislator shot dead a protester and then killed himself during a clash in capital Colombo. The next day, Catholic priests and nuns along with Muslim religious leaders averted possible sectarian violence in Catholic stronghold Negombo.
Sri Lankan government supporters attack peaceful protesters outside the president’s office in Colombo on May 9. (Photo: AFP)
Amid nationwide protests, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Monday but protesters are demanding his elder brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, must also quit immediately. Protesters set on fire houses of the Rajapaksa family in the city of Hambantota and destroyed a family memorial.
The government has imposed a nationwide curfew and deployed the military as protests spill over while the nation sinks with a debt of 51 billion US dollars.
Major ethnic rebel groups from Christian-majority regions of Myanmar have dismissed an offer for peace talks from junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing.
The Karen National Union, Kachin Independence Army, Chin National Front and Karenni National Progressive Party said they will not attend meetings with the military leader because all stakeholders were not invited and there is a lack of genuine political will to ensure a federal democratic union.
A church service is held for a member of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF), who died during fighting with the military, in Demoso township in Myanmar’s Kayah state on Sept. 17, 2021. (Photo: KNDF/AFP)
The junta chief aims to talk to representatives of established ethnic armed groups in May. But he didn’t invite newly emerged people’s defense forces and the shadowy National Unity Government, describing them as terrorist groups.
Myanmar’s 20 ethnic armed groups have been fighting for autonomy for more than seven decades. The debate over peace talks came as the military targeted the historic Catholic village of Chan Thar in Sagaing region that left at least 20 houses burned in a raid last Saturday.
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