China bans Christian funerals outside Church

China bans Christian funerals outside Church. The Government claims the new rules aim to “get rid of bad funeral customs”.

Photo: dolgachov/Bigstock.com

Christian funerals outside places of worship have been banned in some areas of China as the Government begins to enforce a set of repressive regulations on religious practices. In the eastern province of Zhejiang, the Government has put in force a set of “regulations on centralised funeral arrangement”, which bans priests from conducting funeral prayers outside a religious place.

The Government claims the new rules aim to “get rid of bad funeral customs and establish a scientific, civilised and economical way of funerals”.

“Clerical personnel are not allowed to participate in funerals at homes” and “no more than ten family members of the deceased are allowed to read scriptures or sing hymns in a low voice,” the new rules state.

The rules began to take effect recently, although enacted on December 1, 2019 said a Catholic in Wenzhou Diocese in Zhejiang.

The regulations strictly ban “religious activities outside religious places, so the priest will not be able to hold funeral prayers outside the church,” he said.

Huang Jian, also of Wenzhou, said that after the new regulations were announced, “priests are not attending religious funeral ceremonies.”

In villages, priests could visit parishioners’ homes but could not conduct any religious ceremonies or prayers, he said.

Fr Guo of Henan parish, which is part of the open Church approved by the state, said Government officials have asked them to strictly follow the regulations on religious affairs. “Otherwise there would be penalties. The punishment could even be closing the church and cancelling the priest’s priesthood certificate, letting the priest go home,” he said.

Fr Guo did not deny that the situation of the Chinese Church is worrying.

“It has been oppressed to this extent. I only do what I should do, otherwise I cannot face God,” he said.

© Libreria Editrice Vatican, November 18, 2019.

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