The Catholic Weekly 31 May 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 16 NEWS 31, May, 2020 WORLD Chinese confessor bishops pass away THREE CHINESE bish- ops, each of whom had been imprisoned or sen- tenced to forced labour – sometimes more than once - for ‘counter-revo- lutionary’ activities, have died in recent months, according to the Vatican’s AsiaNews.it website oper- ated by the Pontifical In- stitute for the Missions. Bishop Joseph Zhu Baoyu, Bishop Emeritus of Nanyang, in Henan, died at the age of 99 on 7 May. Bishop Joseph Ma Zhongmu, Bishop Emer- itus of Yinchuan/Ningxia but not recognised by the government, died at the age of 101 on 23 March. Bishop Andrea Jin Daoyuan, Bishop “with- out jurisdiction” of the Diocese of Changzhi/ Luan, in Shanxi, in Main- land China passed away on 20 November last year just short of his 91st birth- day. Bishop Baoyu, a con- vert, was ordained a priest in 1957. From 1964 to 1967 he was sentenced to forced labour because of his faith. In 1981 he was again sentenced to 10 years of forced labor as an anti-revolutionary. Re- leased in 1988, he was consecrated Coadjutor Bishop of Nanyang in 1995 and took over lead- ership of the Diocese in 2002, retiring in 2010. Bishop Zhongmu was the first, and so far the only, Bishop of Mongo- lian ethnicity. He was or- dained a priest in 1947. In 1958, after refusing to join the Patriotic Asso- ciation, he was sentenced to forced labor. Ten years later he was released, but forced to work as a laborer. In April 1979 he was re- habilitated and was able to resume his priestly ministry. On November 8, 1983 he was consecrated Bish- op. He wrote a catechism for Mongolians and oth- er doctrinal texts in their own language. In 2005 he resigned and dedicated himself to translating the New Tes- tament and the Roman Missal into Mongolian. Bishop Daoyuan was born in 1929 and or- dained a priest in 1956. In the serious context of the 1950s, he was arrested and remained in prison for about 13 years. Af- ter release, he dedicated himself in particular to vocational pastoral care, helping to form many priests and religious women. - AsiaNews POPE FRANCIS assured Catholics in China that the universal church shared their hopes and supported them during hardship. He also asked all Catholics to pray for their brothers and sisters in China, as the church celebrated the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians May 24. Because Chinese Catho- lics have a particularly strong devotion of Our Lady, Help of Christians, Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 established the May 24 feast as a world day of prayer for the church in Chi- na. After praying the Regina Coeli May 24, Pope Francis asked that people pray to Our Lady so that Catholics in Chi- na would be “strong in the faith and steadfast in fraternal union, joyous witnesses, pro- moters of charity and broth- erly hope, and good citizens.” Expressing his “great and sincere affection,” Pope Fran- cis said he wanted to assure all Catholics in China “that the universal church, of which you are an integral part, shares your hopes and sup- ports you in your trials of life.” “She accompanies you with prayer for a new out- pouring of the Holy Spirit, so that the light and beauty of the Gospel might shine in you as the power of God for the salvation of all those who be- lieve,” the pope said. The Shrine of Our Lady, Help of Christians at Sheshan, outside Shanghai, is the coun- try’s most popular Catholic shrine. - CNS Prayer for China Pope assures Chinese Catholics the Church has not forgotten them in hardship A worshipper prays during Mass in 2018 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing. PHOTO: CNS/DAMIR SAGOLJ, REUTERS Asia Bibi’s sister arrested, accused of planning her husband’s murder CHRISTIAN ACTIVISTS are visiting the family of Asia Bibi after her brother-in-law was murdered in a village of Paki- stan’s Punjab province. The body of Younas Masih, 50, was found on 25 May morning in a furrow amid the crops of Dao Ki Mallian, a vil- lage in Sheikhupura district. reported UCA News. The father of two was married to Najma Bibi, the younger sister of Asia Bibi, the Catholic woman acquit- ted of blasphemy in 2018 after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan. “He used to take care of the cattle at the farmhouse of a local landlord. We had been searching for him after he went missing a day earlier. His throat was slit. We handed over his body to police,” the victim’s brother George Masih stated in a first information report to police. Masih accused Najma Bibi of conspiring to kill her hus- band with the help of Irfan Dogar, a local Muslim. “She had illicit relations with Dog- ar. My brother often used to stop them. The accused [Dog- ar] murdered him at the be- hest of Bibi,” said Masih. Punjab police spokes- man Sohail Akhtar Sukhera told Dawn newspaper that Sheikhupura police had ar- rested Najma Bibi and Irfan Dogar. He said they had confessed to the crime and the vic- tim’s body had been sent to a morgue for an autopsy. Father Zafar of St Teresa’s Church in Sheikhupura re- fused to comment on the trag- edy. Saleem Iqbal, a La- hore-based activist, visited Bibi’s family on 25 May. “Normally our communi- ty is the victim but sadly the culprit is a Christian and a mother. The families of peo- ple freed from blasphemy charges are much safer un- der the present government,” he told UCA News. Asia Bibi, 47, spent eight years on death row after being convicted of blasphemy in 2010 following an argument with her fellow farmhands over sharing wa- ter. Some Muslims consider Christians dirty and do not drink water using the same container. Bibi, whose full name is Aa- sia Noreen, was convicted of blasphemy against the Proph- et Muhammad and a death sentence was handed down by a local court. It was upheld by Lahore High Court. Punjab governor Salman Taseer and Federal Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti were later murdered for publicly supporting Bibi. In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court quashed her death sentence in October 2018 and ordered her imme- diate release from prison. She left Pakistan in May 2019 and now lives in an un- disclosed location in Canada with her family. - UCA News Pakistani Islamists hold a poster displaying a portrait of Asia Bibi during a protest in Lahore in 2019.