COMPLETE SURRENDER :

China sentences Catholic priests to labour camp (Reuters, July 27, 2002)

China has sentenced three Catholic priests to three years in a labour camp for "cult" activities it says threaten social stability, a U.S.-based religious rights group said.

Fathers Pang Yongxing, 30, Ma Shunbao, 50, and Wang Limao, 32, all underground Roman Catholic clergy members in Baoding city in the northern province of Hebei, were sentenced on July 7 for "disturbing the peace of society", the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said.

Police arrested Wang as he delivered mass on Palm Sunday in March, Ma while offering Easter Sunday mass a week later, and Pang in his home on December,
2001, it said in a faxed statement received on Saturday.

It said the three were being held at the Balizhuang labour camp in Baoding, around 150 km south of Beijing.

Nothing can excuse the Church's current homosexual scandals, but this too is a portrait of the priesthood and obviously a better example of what it means to be a Christian.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 28, 2002 7:39 AM