Father Liu Maochun of Mindong diocese, 36, was placed in detention by security officers last Friday, a day after Father John Baptist Luo Wen was released. They are among seven priests accused of unlawful assembly.
According to Father Luo’s detention statement, he was charged for organizing two faith camps for university students in the name of Mindong’s “underground” Church community, which was banned by the Fu’an city government as an illegal organization in 1992.
The camps, which took place at the Saiqi church from Jan. 28 to Feb. 6, attracted more than 300 Catholic university students. Despite warnings from security officers, the priests and most students proceeded with the activities until the end.
Father Luo was released on March 18 after a 15-day administrative detention in the Fu’an Detention Center.
He told UCA News that he was shut in a 40-square-meter cell that held as many as 21 men who were mostly drug addicts and gamblers.
They shared a long cement bed and some had to sleep on the floor.
While other offenders could receive visitors twice a week, Father Luo said he was deprived of his legal rights.
There was no bathroom and offenders could only wash themselves with cold water in a small courtyard. “Due to the cold and rainy weather, I did not wash during the detention,” said Father Luo.
Two other priests, Fathers Guo Xijin and Miu Yong, have received notices of detention and are expected to be detained for 15 days one after the other.
All seven priests were each fined 500 yuan (US$73).
Fu’an, the base of Mindong’s underground Church community, has been a center of Catholic activities since Spanish Dominican missioners arrived in Fujian province in the 17th century.
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