Never before has the small Catholic community of Hong Kong – barely 500,000 out of 7.5 million inhabitants – been threatened in this way. On the night of June 2-3, large banners appeared in front of the entrance to several churches, uttering intimidating slogans, written in yellow and red characters on a black background: ” Cults invade the faith. The antichrist and the false prophets arise. Under the guise of worshiping God, they incite chaos. They divide religion and have their hands covered with fresh blood. “
The identity of the impostor or “antichrist” to whom the banners refer leaves no doubt: it is the former bishop of Hong Kong, the old Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun (89 years old), the irreducible Chinese Communist Party slayer, whose yellow face is decked out with a devil, with his forked tail and horns. A final warning signals the intention of this campaign: ” Christians, beware that you will not be led to violate the national security law! ” It is in the name of this law, imposed by Beijing on the Hong Kongers on June 30, 2020, that any protest against the Chinese regime can now be heavily sanctioned.
The churches targeted by these actions were not chosen at random. It is the seven parishes of Hong Kong that have planned to give a special mass in commemoration of the Tiananmen massacre, on the evening of Friday, June 4, at 8 p.m., when, traditionally for thirty-one years, the Hong Kong people have always been gathered en masse in Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island. But the large traditional public ceremony being banned for the second year in a row, again for health reasons and despite a remarkably controlled epidemic, these seven churches, spread across the entire territory of Hong Kong, in fact become the last bastions of this commemoration that Beijing seeks to stifle by all means.
A guaranteed freedom of worship
The initiative, unclaimed, seems typical of the actions of the United Front, the party’s octopus organization which leads operations to influence prochinese and regularly sends auxiliaries on mission in the field, in particular to counter the presence of pro-democracy activists in some events.
Hong Kong’s most radical pro-Beijing MP, Junius Ho, who stood out in 2019 for his open support for the gangsters who had “broken” from the protester at the Yuen Long subway station, added by encouraging his supporters to keep a close watch on these Masses and not hesitate to notify the police, ” even at the slightest doubt “. “ We are going to be very vigilant about respecting the health clauses which require us to have only 30% of the places occupied, because we know that there will be spies in the assembly ”, indicates to us the parish priest of one of these parishes, who prefers to remain anonymous.
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