China’s Catholics mark funeral as state scornful

FROM Beijing’s old official churches to underground congregations in the countryside, China’s Catholics were marking the burial of Pope John Paul II despite an official blackout on the ceremony.

Except for a terse, two-sentence report carried by state-run Xinhua news agency and China Central Television’s evening news, government-controlled media virtually paid no attention to the funeral.

“I suspect people will be praying for the pope in our regular mass. We’re sad as he was a great person,” said a member of an underground church in Baoding city, a hotspot of unofficial Catholicism in northern Hebei province 150km south-west of Beijing.

Since the death of the Pope the Baoding area has been tense with officials apparently worried that mourning over the pontiff’s passing could prompt social unrest.

China has not recognised the Vatican in more than 50 years and refused to send a representative to the funeral, angered that President Chen Shui-bian of rival Taiwan would be attending.

The Chinese foreign ministry yesterday reiterated its “strong dissatisfaction” to the Vatican and to Italy for the issuance of his visa, saying his intention to attend the funeral was to be engaged in “secessionist activities”.

For most underground Catholic groups, the day passed in quiet prayer, with no major events organised, according to the US-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, which supports China’s underground Catholic movement.

At Beijing’s South Cathedral, a centre of the country’s state-sanctioned church, large numbers of local Catholics gathered for morning mass, under the watchful eye of plainclothes police officers.

At Xikai Church in the northern city of Tianjin, 300 worshippers gathered at 4:00pm (8.00am GMT), at the same time as the Pope’s funeral half a world away in Rome.

An atmosphere of piety and religious fervour permeated the building, as the Catholics, many of whom had taken time off from work, gathered in front of a large photo of the Pope placed on the altar.

Apart from the short Xinhua and the 16-second state TV report without footages, an apparent news blackout of the funeral seemed to have been ordered for Chinese media. The blackout extended to the foreign ministry’s website.

The All-China Journalists Association said the absence of news was not the result of official censorship but of careful consideration of the kind of news that would sell in the marketplace.

The Chinese government broke diplomatic ties with the Vatican in 1951. The Holy See recognises Taiwan, which China considers a part of its territory.