By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Recently ordained Hawaii priest Father Dong Min Paul Li had been visiting his family in China in July when he learned of the arrest there of three priests of the “underground” Catholic Church.

But it wasn’t until he returned to Hawaii and was settling in at his new parish, St. John Apostle and Evangelist in Mililani, that Father Li realized that he knew them. They had been his seminary classmates years before in China.

According to Catholic News Service, Fathers Liang Aijun, Wang Zhong and Gao Jinbao from Xiwanzi in Hebei province were arrested July 24, in Inner Mongolia region as part of a crackdown against priests who are not part of the government-recognized Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

The arrests provide worrisome evidence of the precarious side of an otherwise hopeful revolution now underway in the Catholic Church in Communist China.

Father Li found himself unnervingly close to these fretful events. He could have been one of those priests.

Father Li was in Laizhou, in the northern Chinese province of Shandong, last month, bringing the celebration of his own new priesthood back home. He had been a seminarian there six years ago when a series of external interventions steered his journey to holy orders away from his home country toward Hawaii. On June 8, Bishop Larry Silva ordained him a priest for the Diocese of Honolulu.

Back in China, Father Li could not openly exercise his priesthood for fear of government reprisals. While he was there, Pope Benedict XVI released his groundbreaking letter to Chinese Catholics urging more religious freedom and a unified church.

Catholic News Service reported that AsiaNews, an agency sponsored by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, said that at least 11 priests under arrest are experiencing harsher treatment since the publication June 30 of Pope Benedict XVI’s letter.

AsiaNews said its sources in China described the latest arrests as “a government answer to the pope’s letter.”

Meanwhile, the Asian church news agency UCA News reported Aug. 3 that religious affairs officials in July detained another priest from the unregistered community, Father Cui Tai of the Xuanhua Diocese in Hebei province.

According to AsiaNews, some of the priests are held in labor camps sentenced to three-year terms for “illegal religious activities.” Some have suffered solitary confinement.

The Communist Chinese government has long persecuted the “underground” Catholic community which holds allegiance to the pope, while promoting an “official” church that rejects any outside influence.

Father Li was able to read and download the pope’s letter from the Vatican’s website at an Internet café soon after its June 30 publication. However, he said that less than 10 hours after the letter appeared on some Catholic websites in China, it was removed due to government pressure.

Father Li said the letter got a positive reception by Chinese Catholics, especially those who do not belong to the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the government-approved Catholic Church.

While showing a willingness to discuss church-state relations with the Chinese government, the pope’s letter also insisted that Catholics should have full religious freedom, including the freedom to maintain normal contacts with the pope and the Vatican.

“People have been suffering since the 1950s until now,” Father Li told the Hawaii Catholic Herald last week. “People have been asking, ‘What is our suffering for?’ People said we want to keep the connection with the pope because we recognize he is the shepherd for the universal church.”

After the release of the papal letter, Li said underground Chinese Catholics feel that “our suffering has been recognized by the pope.”

“This letter looks like the first light through the darkness,” he said. “Fifty years is long enough for people to carry on [alone].”

In his letter, Pope Benedict called for unity between the official and unofficial Catholic churches. He said that members of clandestine churches should feel free to attend churches and services lead by priests and bishops that are members of the patriotic association.

The papal letter was also critical of the limits placed on church life, but called for more dialogue between the Vatican and the Chinese government.

“For us in the underground church, we feel it’s really encouraging that the pope emphasized that we be united with the official church for the good of the faithful,” Father Li said. “From this letter, the pope gives clear guidelines of what we’re going to do for the future.”

However, he said, at least one basic problem remains. Many Catholics in China don’t know which bishops are recognized by the Vatican. There is no official list and the government has a history of harassing, arresting and imprisoning Vatican-endorsed bishops.

“It’s time to reorganize the church there, because some dioceses have no bishops and no offices,” Father Li said.

He said his home parish priest had been traveling from town to town and speaking about the letter to Catholics, distributing a few copies at each stop.

Father Li’s sister has two brothers-in-law who are underground priests. They told him that priests in the government church have been restricted in talking about the pope’s letter to the public.

He himself had to be very cautious returning to China as an ordained priest. He kept a low-profile, celebrating home Masses quietly for his neighbors and family and enjoying time with his two 7-year-old nieces.

While Father Li had no direct confrontations with the police, he said his neighbors were questioned about whether his parents, who traveled to Hawaii for his ordination, had returned.

Parishioners at St. Philomena in Salt Lake, where he was previously assigned, were praying fervently that Father Li would return home safely. They worried when, on his return trip, the priest’s bus broke down and his flight in Japan was delayed a day.

Back safely in Hawaii, he went to visit them and he said they exclaimed, “Oh, thank God we finally got to see you!”

“I just want to thank everyone for their prayers,” Father Li said.