The priests in the south-eastern diocese call on those who want justice to take part in a peaceful and legal rally to stop the demolition campaign currently underway in Zhejiang. Officials responsible for the latter have been doing it “with a vengeance” and "must be brought to justice." The priests are ready for anything, even death, to do what is right. “When one cross is removed, one million crosses will be erected.”

Wenzhou (AsiaNews) – Communist officials responsible for the anti-cross campaign in Zhejiang have been acting “with a vengeance” going beyond their rights and duties. For this reason, “they must be brought to justice” before China’s “peaceful development” does not fall “into yet another calamity”.

For this reason, the local clergy is ready to do anything, even die for a just cause, protecting Christianity’s sacred symbol. What follows is their letter published late last month.

Cry Out! Be Silent No More! -  An open letter by Catholic clergy from the Wenzhou parish to all Chinese Christians and citizens

Last year the Zhejiang provincial government began a "Three Rectifications and One Demolition" campaign; over time, it got worse and worse, and now, its nature has changed entirely. At present, the campaign is a naked attempt to rip down the crosses atop every single church. Across our parish, we have been neither servile nor cowed—we have forborne, we have ardently prayed, we have communicated rationally, and we have calmly observed, all the while waiting for the dark clouds to pass.

But certain people have not only not slowed down, but have become more aggressive, as though they were facing a mortal enemy in their targeting of a symbol of universal love—the Cross. They have defied the wishes of the masses and come up with the "Zhejiang Provincial Regulations on Religious Buildings" (《浙江省宗教建筑规范》), which fails even basic jurisprudence, cheating the people and recklessly attempting to carry out their campaign of tearing down every single cross.

Not only this, but our peaceful petitions, as well as rallying the support of parishioners, have been treated as illegal conduct. It's truly like the ancient Chinese saying: "The official is allowed to set fires, but the ordinary folk can't light their lamps." But "trap water in a stream and there will be a disastrous flood; shut up the voices of the public, and a worse disaster awaits." Is it really the case that a government which says it serves the people is going to take the country back to what Liang Qichao (梁启超) decried as "a government that excels in nothing but repressing its own citizens?"

The more they try to suppress the call for justice, they more they demonstrate the severity of the social crisis, the fragile confidence in their rule, and their inability to get to grips with the matter. If they want to strike out at the cross as a means of treating such an urgent disease, it will only plunge China—which, after making it through the Great Leap Forward and the disastrous Cultural Revolution, is only now finding peaceful development—into yet another calamity.

As individuals with human rights granted by God, every single person has freedom of belief. In order to safeguard the cross, and to preserve our most basic right to believe, we will keep watch and defend one another, and we will mount a rational and reasonable resistance.

As citizens of China, we yearn for comprehensive and deeper democracy and rule of law. As for those senior officials who force their subordinates to participate, issuing commands to make them carry out demolition work; and those who trample upon the constitution, who willfully defile the dignity of the law, who violate administrative procedure, who use their power to confuse the law, and who lead the way in undermining the rule of law, they must be resolutely exposed and resisted, and they must be brought to justice.

As the sons and daughters of China, we all yearn for an environment of long-term peace and stability. We absolutely can't go back to where "the ordinary people suffer whether in a period of prosperity or decline;" we must absolutely not allow anything to go against the tide of harmonious development.

All Christians in China have all along carried a sense of mission with them, honouring the Lord and benefiting their fellow man. At the same time, we have longed for a fair and tolerant cultural, religious and social environment in which to adapt the Christian religion to Chinese culture. Zhejiang provincial authorities have been demolishing crosses with a vengeance. Is that your understanding of the sinification of religion recently called for by Chairman Xi Jinping?

At a juncture where "the wind is sweeping through the tower heralding a rising storm in the mountains," we will even more so take as our great responsibility the rejuvenation of the Chinese people, and we will more firmly believe that we too are the backbone and the blessing of the Chinese nation. Watching one cross after another being torn down, we have cried out in anger and shed tears in sorrow. But we will wisely and carefully use every method available to re-erect the crosses. When one cross is removed, one million crosses will be erected: in every person's heart, along the avenues and in the alleyways, and in the home of every family.

The Church has throughout its history grown and thrived under either persecution or the favour of the ruler. We earnestly beseech the Lord's mercy, to grant us the courage to die for what is right, for the peace of the nation, for the true rise of the Chinese nation, to make whatever sacrifice is required.

As it is written in the Bible (Amos 5:24): "But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" For the freedom to believe, for the dignity of the law, for the continuous development of China, for the long term welfare of the Chinese people, all believers across the whole of China, those tens of millions filled with a sense of justice—be silent no more! Let us all cry out!

The whole body of Christian clergy from the Wenzhou parish

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• zhejiang
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• demolition
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