Chinese Rule of Hong Kong Is Frustrating

WASHINGTON (CNS) — For people in Hong Kong, the first 10 years of Chinese rule has been “a long series of frustrations,” said Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun.

“On the surface, everything is like before,” Cardinal Zen told Catholic News Service in Washington, May 30. However, he added, Chinese government authorities “are not keeping their promises.” For instance, he said, although universal suffrage is contained in the Basic Law, the miniconstitution that governs Hong Kong until 2047, Chinese officials ruled out direct elections of the Hong Kong chief executive in 2007 and the special administrative region’s legislature in 2008.

“They are always directed by fear,” the cardinal said. “They are full of fear about Hong Kong people because we protest” and, “for communists, anyone who protests is the enemy.” In May 1989, while Hong Kong was still under British control, one million residents protested the Chinese crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Hong Kong reverted to Chinese control and became a special administrative region of China in 1997.

Diocese Gets Grant For Better Preaching

RAPID CITY, S.D. (CNS) —Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Rapid City has announced that the diocese has been awarded $100,000 in grant funding to promote excellence in preaching in his diocese.

The three-year project, called “To Preach the Good Word Well,” will focus on how the word of God transforms the lives of clergy and laity and forms their vision as people of God. The purpose of the project is to assist clergy and laity in more effectively preaching and listening to the word of God. The funding was provided by a private foundation that wishes to remain anonymous.

“We are convinced that excellence in preaching enlivens parish communities. Good preaching begins with a sound knowledge of Scripture and includes reflection on the church’s tradition down through the centuries to the present time,” Bishop Cupich said in a statement. “This project is unique,” he added, “in that it helps both the one who preaches and those who hear the word of God attend to what God does and what God is doing.”

Stronger Ties for Vatican, United Arab Emirates

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican and the United Arab Emirates announced May 31 that they had established full diplomatic relations and would soon exchange ambassadors. The brief Vatican announcement said the Holy See and the seven states forming the United Arab Emirates wanted to promote “bonds of mutual friendship” and strengthen their international cooperation.

Located on the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates has a combined population of some 4.4 million people, but more than 80 percent of them are noncitizen guest workers. The vast majority of the citizens are Muslims, but many of the guest workers belong to other religious traditions. Among the guest workers, “according to reliable estimates, there could be more than 1 million Christians, mostly Catholics, belonging to more than 100 different nationalities,” said a Vatican note published with the May 31 announcement. While the seven emirates — Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Al Fujayrah, Ra’s al Khaymah, Sharjah and Umm al Qaywayn — recognize Islam as the state religion, freedom of worship is guaranteed.

Benedictine Cause for N. Korean Martyrs

SEOUL, South Korea (CNS) —The largest Benedictine abbey in Asia has opened the canonization cause for three dozen 20th-century martyrs of the Benedictine mission in North Korea.

Abbot Simon Petro Ri Hyeong-u of the Order of St. Benedict Waegwan Abbey said the order is setting up a tribunal for the cause, so the community can “honor the faith witness of our predecessors.” The martyrs include a bishop, 18 priests, 13 brothers, three nuns and a laywoman. They died in prison or in detention camps between 1949 and 1952 at the hands of North Korea’s communist regime “due to hostility against Christianity,” said Abbot Ri. His remarks were reported by UCA News, an Asian church news agency, May 31.

The Benedictines, who arrived in northern Korea in 1909, set up an abbey in Tokwon and administered two church jurisdictions. The Korean peninsula was partitioned in 1945, and during the 1950-53 Korean War the Benedictines fled to South Korea and re-established themselves in Waegwan.

Gov’t Ignores Violence Against Indian Christians

NEW DELHI (CNS) — Christians in India have urged the federal and state governments to stop ignoring the growing attacks on the minority Christian community.

More than 1,000 Christians demanded the governments take responsibility during a New Delhi protest May 29 organized by the All India Christian Council, the Archdiocese of Delhi and other church and advocacy groups. John Dayal, head of the All India Catholic Union, told Catholic News Service that the “reminder to the authorities is that your silence kills. The governments should act to stop this spiral of violence.”

Although the incidents seem sporadic, Dayal said, the attacks on Christians were carried out “systematically” by Hindus using the persecution of Christians “to unite and consolidate” their Hindu support base. Father Victor D’Souza, vicar general of the Delhi Archdiocese, told those gathered at the rally: “We are citizens of this country. Yet, we are being singled out and attacked.”

Church in Puerto Rico Looks to Future

APARECIDA, Brazil (CNS) —Caught between two cultures, the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico is regaining its identity and looking to the future.

The “great goal” for the Church is “to re-evangelize and rekindle the faith of our people,” said Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan, the capital. “In Puerto Rico, because of the identity crisis that occurred a little more than a century ago, that re-evangelization is more difficult.” Although Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth, “its deepest roots are Latino,” Archbishop Gonzalez said. U.S. rule began in 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, but indigenous, African and Spanish cultures “shaped its identity for 400 years” and that influence “cannot be undone overnight,” he told Catholic News Service.

Issues being discussed at the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean are highly relevant to the church in Puerto Rico, because it has more in common with those regions than with the mainland United States, Archbishop Gonzalez said.

Parents of Kidnapped Girl Meet Pope

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI, meeting the parents of a 4-year-old British girl apparently kidnapped while the family was on vacation in Portugal, blessed a photograph of the little girl and offered his prayers.

Kate and Gerry McCann, the Catholic parents of Madeleine, who has been missing since May 3, met the pope at the end of his weekly general audience May 30 in St. Peter’s Square. When they handed him the photograph, the pope caressed it. “His thoughts and touch and words were more tender than we could have imagined,” Gerry McCann told reporters afterward. “Today, meeting the pontiff was an experience that has very mixed emotions for us,” he said. “In ordinary circumstances, of course, it would be the highlight (in the life) of any Catholic to come and meet the pope, but it is saddened with the very marked realization that our daughter is still missing.” Madeleine disappeared May 3 from the hotel room in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where her family was vacationing. The parents had left Madeleine and her 2-year-old twin siblings alone in the room while they went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. Police believe the girl was abducted.