HONG KONG (UCAN): The rumour mill, which can run rampant around the Church in China, became so strong and complex around the time of the death of Bishop Casimir Wang Milu on February 14 that his younger brother, Bishop John Wang Ruowang, did not feel free to preside at the funeral ceremony of his older brother.

HONG KONG (UCAN): China will continue choosing bishops for the official Catholic Church community and it will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a work plan for 2017 posted on the website of the State Administration of Religious Affairs on January 26 announced.

HONG KONG (UCAN): Bishop Casimir Wang Milu, from Tianshui in the northwest of China, suffered a stroke and later contracted pneumonia in hospital where he died on February 14 at the age of 74.

The bishop from the unofficial community of the Church was not recognised by the Chinese government. He had been hospitalised since early January, but his condition continued to deteriorate. His funeral took place on February 18.

HONG KONG (UCAN): A group of priests in Hanzhong in Shaanxi province has accused 85-year-old Bishop Louis Yu Runshen of corruption and are demanding that he step down.

A letter signed by 20 of the 27 priests in the diocese, including the coadjutor bishop, 87-year-old Bishop Matthias Yu Chengxin, who is partially paralysed, was sent to Bishop Louis Yu.

BEIJING (AsiaNews): The nuanced readjustment that Beijing made to its long-standing One Child Policy on January 1 last year when it increased the number from one to two, is having a positive effect, the Health and Family Planning Commission reports.

A divisional director of the commission, Yang Wenzhuang, said that statistics show more than 18.46 million babies were born in mainland hospitals in 2016—11.5 per cent more than 2015 and the highest since the record was set in 2000.

HONG KONG (UCAN): Conservationists have welcomed a move against the ivory and shark fin trades by China, but are worried that the different regulations in force in Hong Kong will leave a few loopholes for the trade to flourish in the special administrative region.

The State Council announced in Beijing on December 29 that China would stop all sales of ivory and its products by the end of 2017.

HONG KONG (SE): “Remember that the most important gift you can bring home to your family at the New Year is the gospel,” pastors in urban Churches in China have been telling their parishioners, something they say that is especially important for the young and unmarried.

HONG KONG (UCAN): Government-sanctioned Catholic organisations in China held their Ninth National Congress for Catholic Representatives in December 2016.

What is worrying is that this congress claims to be the supervisor of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, while the conference itself claims authority over individual diocesan bishops.

Neither of these two practices are compatible with Canon Law or the doctrine of the Catholic Church.