Hong Kong (UCAN): Su Tianyou, the nephew of Bishop James Su Zhimin of the unofficial Church in Baoding, Hebei province, has appealed for information about his whereabouts. The bishop has been missing for 23 years.
 
“His whereabouts are unknown and I don’t even know if he is alive or not. I am upset with tears every time I think of this 87-year-old man. Please pray for him,” Su said.
 

VATICAN (AsiaNews): The Global Times, the daily Chinese tabloid run under the auspices of the People’s Daily newspaper, published an interview with Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, on May 12. It marked the first time such an interview took place.
 
The front page of the paper featured a photo of a smiling Pope Francis  and sported that headline: Pope Francis sees China as a great country, says a cardinal.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): Catholics in China’s Henan province are concerned that a new appraisal system for religious personnel is a front for political screening.
 
On priest said that the provincial Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and Catholic Church Committee approached him during Holy Week seeking to appraise him. A few days later, he found the newly launched annual appraisal scheme with an assessment form on WeChat. 
 
“The appraisal is ridiculous,” he said.
 

Benedict Rogers
 
China is waging a global propaganda war in an attempt to silence overseas critics at a time when it has unleashed the most repressive crackdown on internal dissent since the Tiananmen Square massacre 30 years ago.
 

VATICAN (CNS): The Holy See is one of a number of nations and organisations who accepted an invitation from the Chinese government to participate in Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition running from April 29 to October 7 with the theme, Live Green, Live Better.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): Father Peter Zhang Guangjun of the unofficial Church in the Diocese of Xuanhua, in Hebei, was forcibly taken away by authorities just after he celebrated Passion Sunday Mass on April 14.
 
A local Catholic, who identified himself as Paul, said that he received a call from the priest just as he was being apprehended.
 
“When some plainclothes men came closer to the car and asked Father Zhang to open the window, he felt bad things were going to happen and he called me immediately,” Paul said.

HONG KONG (UCAN): In the first round of episcopal elections since the signing of the Vatican-China provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops last September, a was coadjutor bishop elected for the Diocese of Hanzhong in Shaanxi province, and a bishop chosen for the Diocese of Jining, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous .
 
Forty-four-year-old Father Stephen Xu Hongwei was elected as coadjutor for Hanzhong on April 11, while Father Anthony Yao Shun, the former vicar general of Jining, was elected bishop on April 9.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): Bishop Augustine Cui Tai of Xuanhua, Hebei, China, was detained again on March 29, while his vicar general, Father Zhang Jianlin was taken into custody by officials from the provincial religious department on March 28, amid a long-running dispute between a group of Beijing-affiliated priests and the unofficial community in the northern Chinese province.