Chinese Bishop Sleeping on Street After Refusing to Join Communist Schismatic Group, by Lianne Laurence

LUOJIANG, China, January 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A Chinese Catholic bishop is homeless and sleeping on the doorstep of his former residence after he and the priests who work with him were evicted by communist authorities earlier this week, Asia News reported Thursday.

Chinese authorities evicted Msgr. Vincenzo Guo Xijin, 61, and an undisclosed number of priests from their curial house in Luojiang on the grounds that the building violated fire regulations.

In reality, the action is a punitive measure against Guo and his priests for refusing to join the “independent” Catholic Church and is part of a wider crackdown in the Mindong diocese in Fujian province, which has become a “pilot project” for implementing the Vatican’s 2018 disastrous secret accord with China, Asia News reported.

Overseen by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican-China agreement gives President Xi Jinping’s government a say in the appointment of bishops, among other concessions, and paves the way for unification of the state-sanctioned Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), which the communist government created in the 1950s, and the secret underground Church, whose members remained united to the Holy See despite the risk of being killed, imprisoned, and otherwise persecuted for their faith.

Hong Kong cardinal Joseph Zen condemned the Vatican-China accord as an “incredible betrayal,” and a U.S. congressional report released this month linked the secret deal to an “intense” spike in persecution of Christians not seen in China since the Cultural Revolution. ….

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