Chinese authorities "re-educate" Shanghai's priests and nuns

Gerald O'Connel
Vatican Insider
Oct. 6, 2012

Seeking to prevent any further dissent from the Government’s policy on religious matters, the Chinese authorities have compelled 80 Catholic priests and 80 nuns of the Shanghai diocese to attend thirty-six hours of classes to get them to “think and act in the right way” about relations between the State and religion, the principle of an independent Church, and the Communist Party’s understanding of religious concepts, policies and regulations.

The 160 priests and also nuns of the Shanghai diocese have been forced to attend compulsory “study classes”, UCA News agency said when it broke the news. The nuns are members of Our Lady of the Presentation Congregation whose Superior General, Sister Agnes Liu Shujing, was dismissed by the same authorities last July.

Participants at the re-education course were divided into three groups and ordered to attend three-days of classes, each lasting 12 hours, at the Shanghai Institute of Socialism. The classes began September 10 and concluded at the end of September. Church sources told UCA News that University professors gave lectures aimed at strengthening the participants’ sense of duty to the country, its laws and to the principle of an independent Church principle – that is a Church run independently of Rome.

Full article at the Vatican Insider