WENZHOU (UCAN): Christian funerals 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 begun enforcing the Regulations on Centralised Funeral Arrangement, which bans priests from attending funeral services outside a religious venue.
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 10 family members of the deceased are allowed to read scriptures or sing hymns in a low voice,” the rules state.
Although enacted on 1 December 2019, the new rules only came into effect recently, according to a Catholic in the Diocese of Wenzhou 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 from Wenzhou, said that after the new regulations were announced, “priests (have not been) attending religious funeral ceremonies.”
In villages, priests can visit parishioners’ homes but could not conduct any religious ceremonies or prayers, he explained.
Father Guo of Henan parish, which is part of the official Church community, said that 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.
Father Guo did not deny that the worrying situation of the Chinese Church. “It has been oppressed to this extent. I only do what I should do, otherwise I cannot face God,” he said.
“They don’t let me be a priest. If they don’t let me go to church, I’ll just go underground. Anyway, the Church on the ground is now oppressed no differently from the underground. Be restrained.”
Father Guo noted that communists will hold memorial services when they die. “Why are we Catholics not allowed to hold a ceremony? This is exactly persecution,” he added.
Father Peter Lee, another member of the official Church in eastern Shandong, said that so far, he had received no government instructions.
“I still celebrate sacraments at the homes of dead parishioners. The day before yesterday, I sent a greeting to a church member from home to the cemetery. No one blocked it,” he said on January 30.
China has also banned funerals, burials and other related activities involving those who died from the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in Hubei province.
