10/24/2017 2 Comments This man, Monsignor Matthew Koo, spent 29 years in prisons and death camps in Communist China for the Catholic faith. What have you done lately for the Faith?29 Years in Laogai
I am all yours, my Queen, my Mother, and all that I have is yours. – Frank Duff – “Legio Mariae: The Official Handbook of the Legion of Mary” “Chu lai! Chu lai!” commanded unfamiliar voices on the other side of the closed door, hollering, “Come out! Come out!” Startled, Matthew Koo sat up in his bed, wakened in the pre-midnight hours, caught somewhere between the black of night and first of light, somewhere between dreams and reality, somewhere bathed in the sweat of a balmy September slumber in Shanghai, China. Following orders, the 22-year-old, third-year seminarian, reached for the mosquito net cascading over his mattress and found an opening in the mesh. He rose from his bed. Already wearing shorts and a shirt, he slipped into a pair of shoes. With sleep still in his body, he stumbled through the doorway of his dormitory room on the second floor, never looking back. He would never see his room again. “Downstairs!” a stranger ordered. Matthew rushed down the steps, heading toward one of the classrooms on the first floor of Zikawei (Shanghainese for Xujiahui) Diocesan Seminary, normally bustling during the day with the sweet chime of bells, syllables of Chinese-tinged Latin and the swoosh of long, Chinese scholar robes. “Sit! Head down! No looking up!” ordered one of the plainclothes officers from the Zikawei District Police Station. Matthew slid into a seat, surrounded by dozens of fellow seminarians and a few Jesuit instructors. Several officers, dressed in non-uniform street clothes, stood with their backs against the walls and pointed their weapons at the passive group of religious believers, as one officer brusquely read down a list of names, intermittently raising his hand and shaking the papers filled with lines of Chinese characters. When Matthew heard his name, he stood, and stepped forward. A stranger pushed him into the next room and stuck a pistol in his chest. “You’re arrested!” he said, sliding his handgun into its holster. Matthew offered no resistance, as he felt his arms pulled behind his back and the handcuffs wrap around his wrists. Led outside, he was shoved up into one of several trucks, waiting with engines idling. Normally used to transport coal, a layer of black powder dusted the interior of the truck’s dumping bed, where he squatted down amongst his confreres. With the moon waning in its last quarter, the night was hidden in a darkness as black as the coal dust. He could see very little. Other than the revving of engines, the yelling of the officers, the banging of doors, he heard only the nervous breathing of others squatting nearby. No one dared to whisper a word. Eventually, the driver slid the transmission into first gear, then stepped on the accelerator. With a start, the engine roared, as the truck rolled ahead, gears grinding, tires crunching the gravel, and its human load swaying with the motion and centrifugal force. It was September 8, 1955, Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That night, as part of the regime’s Campaign to Eliminate Counterrevolutionaries, launched in 1955, the authorities had not only rounded up the 170-plus seminarians and half a dozen instructors from Zikawei. Hundreds were arrested that night, including Bishop Pin-Mei “Ignatius” Kung (1901-2000, old form of Pinmei Gong). Throughout Shanghai, a counterrevolutionary apprehension task force had been dispatched to seize those labeled political enemies of the State, those counter to the People’s Revolution. They were political enemies, the worst of the worst criminals: faithful Roman Catholics, derided as religious zealots. Only the previous Saturday, September 3, when the seminary opened its doors to those preparing for the priesthood, Matthew arrived early in the day. He watched as several men surveyed the premises, for sanitation purposes, they had claimed. That was a common excuse authorities frequently replied upon to gain access to privately owned homes and facilities. Upstairs and downstairs the men walked, through one room then the next in the three-story seminary, all the while whispering to one another and taking notes. The men must have been mapping out the rooms for their planned attack, Matthew thought. Abruptly, the 10-minute ride in the truck ended. A foot slammed down the brake pedal, and the engine’s roar decelerated to a murmur. It was the end of the road and the end of freedom for Matthew and the others. They had arrived at Zikawei District Police Station. “Come down!” officers yelled as they popped open the tailgate. Herded to a cell, Matthew wasn’t informed of the charges against him, but he felt certain that he knew what his “crime” was. Years earlier he had joined a religious organization, the Legion of Mary, which consisted of faithful Catholics united by good works – a crime in the Communist dictatorship of the People’s Republic of China, where the Party was the savior, not the foreigners’ Man on the Cross. ††† The formation of Legion of Mary chapters began in China, in 1948, when Archbishop Antonio Riberi (1897-1967), apostolic nuncio to China, ordered Father W. Aedan McGrath (1906-2000, Missionary Society of Saint Columban) to establish the Catholic grass-roots organization, as far and as fast as possible. With the determination and the dedication of the Irish missionary, the effort readied the native Chinese Catholics for what the clergy believed would be the oppression and inevitable annihilation of the Roman Catholic Church by the Red tidal wave of destruction that would undoubtedly follow the rise in power of the Communists. Religious persecution seemed imminent. War had ravaged the Middle Kingdom for decades. The death of Empress Dowager Tzu-Hsi (old form of Cixi), in November 1908, and the subsequent coronation of her named successor, 2-year-old Pu-Yi, had opened the door for change. The following uprising on Double-10 Day (October 10, 1911) led to the collapse of the Ching (old form of Qing) Dynasty, finally ending the centuries-long dynastic rule of Imperial China. After the Republican Revolution of 1911, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuo Min Tang, old form of Guomindang) quickly rose to power, and was soon infiltrated by Communists after their Party opened its first Chinese chapter, in 1921, in Shanghai. When the Reds were purged from the ranks of the Nationalists, in 1927, the ouster sparked the Chinese Civil War between the two factions, which lasted, on-again and off-again, until December 1949, when one-time President Kai-Shek Chiang (1887-1975, old form of Jieshi Jiang) retreated from the mainland for Formosa (Portuguese name for Taiwan), where, in Taipei, he reestablished the capital of the diminishing Republic of China. Chiang had already lost face. He suffered public humiliation when Tse-Tung Mao (1893-1976, old form of Zedong Mao), the chairman of the Communist Party, stood behind an array of microphones, atop Tiananmen, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, and announced the Communist takeover of the nation’s political seat of power, on October 1, 1949. “The Central People’s Government Council of the People’s Republic of China took office today on this capital,” he proclaimed. Gradually, methodically, patiently, the Communists, for whom nothing is sacred except the Party, began the destruction of the nation and its people, who attempted to live their lives as normally as possible under the ever-changing policies. By 1951, Matthew was a student in the top of his class at Saint Francis Xavier College, a secondary school, founded by the Marian Brothers, renowned for its exemplary English-language immersion program. A normal teenager, he didn’t have a natural inclination toward the holy, but during Lent of that year, Matthew, a fourth-generation Catholic, readily became a member of the Legion of Mary when asked by a schoolmate. After all, he didn’t have much else to do with all his free time after the regime banned Western entertainment and replaced it with backward Communist propaganda reels filled with oversimplified slogans used for the ideological indoctrination of the masses. From that first day as a Legionary, his life changed forever. “I am all yours, my Queen, my Mother, and all that I have is yours,” he publicly proclaimed that day, when he stepped before the Legion’s standard, a vexillum topped with a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit of Truth, hovering over a representation of the miraculous medal’s Immaculate Conception. In addition to the weekly meetings, much of the time he tended to a small mobile library, lending out religious books and American tales of adventure about the Wild West, all translated to Chinese. But most importantly, as a Legionary he was to regularly perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy, for which he visited the sick, the bedridden and the invalids. Even though in Shanghai, where beggars and bankers walked the same streets, Matthew had never been exposed to poverty and misery, until he joined the Legion. His father, Francis Xavier Koo, whom his children lovingly called Tia-Tia, was a highly successful self-made, rags-to-riches, import-export businessman who owned his own company, Zhong Xing Lace, located in the British section of Shanghai’s International Settlement. Rejecting China’s cultural tradition of concubinage, he was a devoted husband to Teresa, of the Kung clan from Putung (old form of Pudong). They were the very proud parents of seven children: Francesca, Mary, Dominic, Joseph, Matthew, Agnes and Gertrude. Tia-Tia lavished his large family with anything and everything his wealth could buy. They lived in a beautiful three-story home – consisting of two conjoined buildings – filled with antiques from the West and luxuries that few in China had ever heard of. To keep the family comfortable, the home was staffed with several live-in servants, which included cooks, cleaners, wet nurses, nannies, rickshaw runners and even a chauffeur when he bought an automobile. The Koo children attended the best Catholic schools, and each had their clothing personally tailored and their leather shoes custom made. In his life of privilege, Matthew had only experienced joy and happiness. Until he joined the Legion of Mary. Then he witnessed the great suffering and sorrow of others less fortunate than himself. One day, he and another Legionary, Jui-Chang “Rose” Chen, visited a bedridden woman. The two knocked then opened the door and walked into a shabby room with a single bed, a decrepit table and a few rickety chairs. Standing at the dying woman’s bedside, Matthew looked in horror at her visibly caved-in abdomen. But the woman, so poor and so sick and enduring all with such a dignity and such a grace, genuinely touched his heart. He felt a great compassion toward the woman, and perhaps even a twinge of guilt, because she had nothing, and his family had everything. But his family did not remain wealthy for long after the Communist takeover. In an effort to gain control over privately owned real estate and finances, the People’s Government targeted foreign businesses and prosperous native-owned enterprises, charging excessive taxes and forcing unreasonable regulations. The stress caused countless suicides and untimely deaths of businessmen in Shanghai. One morning, Matthew woke to learn that his Tia-Tia, only 61, had suffered a stroke in the middle of the night, after he had risen to use the toilet. Unable to move, he remained in bed, around which his family stood watch. By chance, Matthew glanced over to a side table. On top, lay a book that he had just loaned from his small mobile library a few days earlier to his father. The book was “The Meaning of Death.” The family chanted aloud, in classical Chinese, the long traditional prayers for the dying. After several days, on August 28, 1951, Matthew watched his father suddenly gasp a raspy breath, as if he were snoring with phlegm catching in his throat. And then he was gone. ††† Around the same time when Matthew had joined the Legion of Mary, his father had gently warned him not to involve himself too much in the Catholic Church. “Communists don’t like Catholicism,” he counseled. Karl Marx, the father of Communism, had, indeed, declared war on religion, in his 23-page pamphlet “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” published in 1848. “Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality,” Marx wrote. Chinese Communists, like other followers of Marx, not only brag that their thinking is progressive, but they also call for the destruction of the old world for the new world, the death of the old man for the new man. Devout atheists, Communists mock religion as a useless superstition and scoff at Catholics, calling them the old-fashioned man stuck in the old-fashioned world. Intolerant, envious and covetous xenophobes, the regime of the single-Party power would never share their supreme authority with the Vicar of Christ, the Teacher of Truth, the Servant of the Servants of God. To rid from Red China the one, holy, apostolic Catholic Church, the dictatorship of death and destruction established, as early as 1949, the Three-Self Reform Movement, so-called for its aim to be self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. It was an attempt to break with the Holy See and the Pope, the defender of life and liberty. When the regime learned that Legionaries refused to join the government-sanctioned church, authorities launched their attack. ††† On October 8, 1951, headlines splashed across Party newspapers officially declared the Legion of Mary a subversive, counterrevolutionary organization, an illegal society using the cloak of religion. And Legionaries were labeled the running dogs, spies, of the American imperialists. The push was part of the Campaign to Suppress Counter-revolutionaries, a movement, launched in 1950, that targeted political enemies. The People’s Government had decreed, on February 20, 1951, the “Regulations on the Punishment of Counterrevolutionaries of the People’s Republic of China” that listed various counterrevolutionary crimes and punishments, including “collaborating with imperialist countries to betray the motherland will be subject to the death penalty.” Ordered to denounce the Legion, members were to go to special centers overseen by the much-feared Military Control Committee. Outside the doors stood 6-foot-tall signs, posted: secret subversive organization, legion of mary, member registration center. Inside, Legionaries were to sign the following: “I, the undersigned, joined the reactionary Legion of Mary on (date) and conducted secret counterrevolutionary and evil activities against the government, the People, and Soviet Russia. I hereby resign from the Legion of Mary, and promise never to participate in such activities in the future.” Unaware of the headlines in the morning papers, which Matthew had not yet seen, he walked to Saint Joseph Church to attend daily Mass, and headed for the left-side door, the men’s entrance. He started to pass by two middle-aged men speaking softly. “Today’s newspaper said that the Legion of Mary is counterrevolutionary and that members must report to their district areas,” one said. The comment caught Matthew’s attention, so he paused and listened. “We Catholics cannot sign this, because the Legion of Mary is not a counterrevolutionary organization. If the members sign in the residents’ area office, it means they recognize it as a counter-revolutionary organization,” the other man said. I cannot register as a counterrevolutionary in the Legion of Mary. I cannot resign, because it would recognize the organization is counterrevolutionary. I cannot do anything against my conscience. This is correct. I cannot say it is wrong, Matthew thought. The deadline to register was set for December 15, 1951. Clemency was promised to those who complied; otherwise, prison and possible execution were the punishments for those who refused. And since the Communist takeover, newspapers had been filled with gruesome accounts and regularly tabulated statistics of those executed simply for being enemies of the State. So there was great reason to have great fear. But Matthew and the other Legionaries refused to comply. They drew their strength from a great man of the Church: Bishop Kung. Since the inception of the Three-Self Reform Movement, the bishop refused to be any part of it, and, as a result, he was repeatedly attacked by the Communists. Authorities intended to sever the head of the Shanghai Church from the body of the faithful, for without a shepherd, the sheep would be vulnerable. But that plan failed, fabulously. Despite the pressure from the Communists, the greatly respected bishop continued to inspire his flock in Shanghai to hold fast to their faith, to never separate from the Pope, the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. Be strong, Kung encouraged the Legionaries. We will never surrender, they assured him. I will never surrender, Matthew vowed. However, the regime plotted endlessly and tirelessly against the Church. In Peking the previous January 17, 1951, authorities ordered dozens of local Chinese priests, three prelates and several members of the laity to attend a conference given by En-Lai Chou (1898-1976, old form of Enlai Zhou), premier of the People’s Republic of China. During the conference, an announce-ment was made about the creation of the Religious Affairs Bureau, a tentacle of the People’s Government that would regulate, oversee and control all religious activities, all religious persons and all religious houses – all required to be registered with and approved by the Bureau. With unrestrained authority, the Religious Affairs Bureau closely monitored the Legionaries throughout China and selected those whom they wanted interrogated or arrested. Names were dispatched to local district police stations, then officers delivered summonses to those ordered to speak with the authorities. After supper one night, Matthew and his mother were relaxing in the top-floor sitting room of their home, when a lone Whangpoo (old form of Huangpu) District police officer dressed in his uniform walked upstairs uninvited and unannounced, handed a summons to Matthew, then turned and left. Several days later, Matthew walked to the police station, where authorities surrounded him. “I want you to resign from the Legion of Mary,” one ordered, as he placed papers on a desk before Matthew. Matthew stared straight ahead and said nothing. “You must know the policy. The Legion of Mary is a counter-revolutionary organization. You must resign. Sign the paper!” the officer ordered. Matthew still did not answer. “Sign the paper!” Silent, Matthew continued to stare ahead. Frustrated, the officer ordered that Matthew be locked up. But the next morning, after spending the night in a temporary holding cell, he still refused to cooperate. When they attempted to fingerprint him, he put his arms straight down his sides and stiffened his entire body. One of the officers, Comrade Chen, grabbed Matthew’s thumb, forcibly rolled it in ink, pressed the ink-stained thumb upon a piece of paper and rolled the print. Only then Matthew was released. Set free, directly from the police station, he walked to Saint Joseph Church. “Koo!” called out worried parishioners, who rushed to him, making sure he was unhurt. Greeting everyone, he entered the church and slid into a pew. After offering prayers of thanksgiving for having survived the ordeal, he returned to his home, undaunted. But it wasn’t long before he was summoned a second time. He was ordered to speak with authorities at the Public Security Bureau’s Registry Office. On the day of the meeting, he sat stone-faced before the official. “You have to resign!” ordered the official behind a desk. “It’s a religious, not a political, organization,” Matthew replied. “If you don’t listen to us, you’ll get in trouble. Our government is very lenient, but if you do not resign, you will reap what you sow.” Without resigning, Matthew was permitted to leave, and he walked home. For several seasons, he forgot about the threats issued by the Communists, and he fell into the rhythm of life. By 1953, all foreign missionaries had either been imprisoned or expelled from China. The Communists had also begun their campaign against the native Catholic priests: threatening, terrorizing, imprisoning and torturing – some to their death – those who refused to join the regime’s Three-Self Reform Movement. Because of the ever-decreasing number of priests, Matthew and other Legionaries began teaching catechism to the children. Giving to others the seeds of the faith, Matthew, himself, received a great gift: a vocation. Following his heart, in 1953, he entered Zikawei Diocesan Seminary, located in southwest section of Shanghai, just outside the French Concession. For the first two years, every waking moment he immersed himself in his studies and dedicated his life to imitate the life of Christ. But just days into his third year, he was arrested, along with hundreds of others in Shanghai, during the night of September 8, 1955, when Communists fanned out to apprehend Catholics still faithful to the Bishop of Rome, the Father of all Faithful, the Fisher of Men. Behind bars, he was ordered to think about his “crimes” against the People’s Government, while sitting on the floor in his cell all day, with his legs crossed in front of him and his back against the wall. One afternoon, he sat, with eyes closed, and his mind drifted to prayers, as usual. One of the guards called, “You! Come out!” Matthew opened his eyes and realized the guard called him. What did I do? he thought, trembling with a great fear, as he stood up and stepped out of his cell and into the corridor. Beside the guard stood an official, who wrenched Matthew’s arms behind his back, handcuffed his wrists, then led him to a padded cell called the rubber room, where suicidal and psychotic inmates were normally locked up for their own protection. The official slammed the door shut. “Will you pray again?!” he demanded, yanking on Matthew’s cuffed hands, pulling them up to torture him. Matthew then understood why he had been singled out. He had been caught praying. Returned to his cell, his hands remained cuffed behind his back for the next week. At mealtimes, a cellmate placed a tin of food on the floor, where Matthew kneeled, leaned forward and lapped up his boiled rice with a few vegetables. A few months after his arrest, one winter’s night, he lay on the cold floor, cocooned in his quilt. Just on the cusp of sleep, when a sound in the distance caught his attention: the ringing of church bells. The tolling continued for two, three minutes. Then he remembered. It was Christmas Eve. The church bells signaled Midnight Mass. Memories of previous Christmas Eves flooded his mind and overwhelmed his heart. Midnight Mass with his family. The Christmas Eve dance party he attended with Sou-Wen Ling, the girl who had lived next door to him. Loneliness crept inside, crowding his thoughts. Silently, he cried, as tears rolled down his cheeks. Then he fell asleep. A few months later, sometime before Lent, in 1956, a guard stood before his cell. “Gather your belongings!” Possessing few items, which he wrapped up in his quilt, packing only took a couple seconds. He left his cell and was escorted into the prison yard, then into the back of a windowless police wagon. Once inside, he saw others, including another Legionary, Catherine Wang. Her hair had been cut very short, and she wasn’t wearing her eyeglasses. The last time he had seen her was during a pilgrimage for graduating seniors to the Basilica of Mary, Help of Christians, in 1953. Everyone had been so happy that day, sailing in boats on Yue Hu (Moon Lake) at the foot of She Shan Hill, marveling at the crystal clear water. That pilgrimage had been instrumental in Matthew’s decision to enter the seminary in the fall. And eighteen months later, Catherine joined the Carmelite nuns as a postulant, in Zikawei’s Holy Cross Convent. But in the police wagon, no one dared say anything. With his arms wrapped around his small bundle, Matthew stared at the afternoon sun seeping through the air vents, as the driver accelerated, with the siren wailing overhead. “Robbers! Robbers!” a boy on the street yelled. The wagon slowed down. A rumbling of what sounded like a huge iron door sliding open. The wagon rolled forward, then stopped again. More rumbling. Again, the wagon inched forward, then slowed into a final stop. The back doors popped opened. Matthew hopped out and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, the many multi-story cement structures surrounded by a high wall topped with curly barbed wire. He had never been to that section in Shanghai, across and beyond the Soochow (old form of Suzhou) River. “Where is here?” he whispered to the man next to him. “What place is this?” “Tilanqiao,” someone whispered. Shanghai City Prison, the sprawling British-built prison first opened in 1903, when it was known as Ward Road Gaol, for its location at 117 Ward Road. Shanghainese called it Tilanqiao (pronounced tee-lan-CHOW), for the district where the massive institution stood. Inmates had a special name for it: The Palace. ††† Once inside the massive five-story cellblock, Matthew stepped into his small cell, constructed to hold only one inmate. He sat, squeezed between his four cellmates. During the night, with so little room on the floor, where the five slept – only about 5 feet by 7 feet – when one man turned, the others were forced to do the same. When one man sweat, his sweat mingled with the sweat of the others. During the day, Matthew sat, cramped, on the floor and stared through the eight bars. For hours, he gazed out the barred windows across the corridor and watched big, puffy, white clouds float by, slowly, one after another. Time is unseeable. Time is passing by like the wind, he thought. Time does not stop. Loneliness seeped into his soul. Desolation crept into his mind. Day after day, he waited for his turn to appear in court, to hear his sentence, to learn his fate. After he had been in Tilanqiao for a few months, he heard a guard call his name. “Yes!” answered Matthew, standing. “This is your sentence. Wu ni,” the guard told him, holding out a piece of paper to him. Wu ji? Life? he thought, panicked, with a sinking feeling. Between the bars, he stretched his hand toward the official-looking paper. Grasping the government’s sentencing document, his eyes scanned the Chinese characters, until he found what he looked for. Wu ni! Only five years! he cheered to himself, relieved that he had received only a five-year sentence. Reading down the document, he learned for the first time the four charges he had been accused of: That he had never recognized himself as a counter-revolutionary; that he had joined the counterrevolutionary organization, the Legion of Mary, and resisted to resign; that he had never recognized Bishop Pin-Mei Kung as a counterrevolutionary; and that he had never recognized the Legion of Mary as a counterrevolutionary organization. Crimes of a political prisoner of conscience. Another guard stood outside the cell and handed stationery to those who had received their sentences. “You will be sent out. Write a letter to your family. Ask your family to give you everything you need in the labor camp. Write nothing about your cases,” the guard announced. Labor camp? Matthew thought, learning of his fate. Before him, he looked down at the sheet of paper with 100 boxes to limit the letter to only 100 Chinese characters. He thought of what best to write to his mother. “Dear Mm-Ma,” Matthew opened his letter with the Shanghainese term of endearment for Mommy. “I want toilet paper. Two bars of soap. Toothbrush. Some food. I would like some spiced meat. Eggs.” One week later, a guard unlocked the cell door. “You have visitors,” he announced, escorting Matthew to a waiting room. Who has come to visit me? What have they brought? he wondered, sitting in the prisoner holding cell. Then the door opened. It was his turn. He walked toward the visitor’s area, so excited, his heart pounded. He saw his mother and his eldest sister, Francesca, standing, waiting. Excitement turned to heartbreak. His mother and sister both appeared so frail, with sad expressions on their faces. Francesca handed to the guard a tall canvas duffle bag that she had made for Matthew and filled with gifts for him. “Do not cry, and do not talk about the case, or the visit will terminate immediately,” the guard warned them. They chatted about the weather, about uncle, about auntie, about this, about that, about nothing. Then Matthew slipped in, “I am peaceful.” His mother understood. Peaceful meant that he had not surrendered, for if a Catholic surrendered, they had no peace. After five minutes, the guard blew his metal pea whistle, signaling the end of the visit. Final goodbyes, then Matthew grabbed his new duffle bag and returned to his cell. Excitement returned as he looked at the bag. When he opened the top, his heart started pounding again. From within, he pulled out a highly prized, store-bought, wool pullover sweater so rare in China, several pairs of socks, two top-quality button-down shirts, underwear that Francesca had sewn just for him, a pair of his sister Mary’s pants altered by sewing up the side and creating an open flap in the front, a towel and a stack of Chinese-style, square, yellow-colored toilet paper sheets. A few nights later, Matthew was jolted awake when guards blasted through the nighttime silence of the prison with shrill whistles. Still dark, hours before sunrise, Matthew and dozens of inmates scrambled out of their quilts to gather their few belongings, including the thick cotton clothing the government had issued a few days before. They were to go to a faraway province, somewhere cold. “Go! Go! Go!” yelled the guards, unlocking the cell doors. Herded outside and into several waiting buses, the prisoners were transported with a police escort and sirens wailing to the Shanghai Railway Station, the old train station in the Zahpoh (Shanghainese for Zhabei) District. Pulling up to the rail cars, the bus drivers aimed the headlights toward the waiting train, a line of cattle cars with open doors. “Go! Go! Go!” yelled the guards. From the buses to the rail cars, the men rushed. Before boarding, each received a bag with a few sticks of rod bread, like French baguettes. Without ramps, Matthew pulled himself up, then grabbed the hands of an old man, who could not manage by himself, and hoisted him up. As the noise of the boarding prisoners quieted, the doors slid shut with a bang, one by one. Inside the darkened cattle car, no one dared speak. The only noise was the soft sound of a few of the hungry and impatient men biting into and chewing their bits of rod bread. With a jolt, the train began its journey. A wooden bucket just like a beer barrel, about knee high, had been placed in the middle, for the men to share for waste elimination. With so many men, as the hours passed, the mess soon overflowed and splashed onto the floor. Before too long, the bucket stood abandoned, as a few decided to urinate out small holes that dotted the car’s wooden planks. The rest soon followed. Many days later the steel wheels below finally stopped. Matthew heard voices outside. Then a pounding against the car startled him. Unable to open the door, guards used a sledgehammer to chip away the frozen urine that had sealed closed the great sliding door. As soon as the panel slammed open, the men blinked back the whiteness that nearly blinded them. With snow everywhere, they saw white, only white. The prisoners hopped out of the rail cars and sank up to their thighs in the drifts. It was morning when they began plowing through the snow with their bodies. Miles and miles later, they arrived late in the afternoon, exhausted, starved, filthy, frozen. Ice-cold February winds greeted the prisoners when they arrived at Fularji Brick Factory, a working prison in China’s most northeastern province of Heilungchiang (old form of Heilongjiang), just one frozen breath away from Siberia. Under the watchful eyes of the People’s Liberation Army, Matthew worked at the backbreaking process of brick making, which began with the digging and removal of the frozen earth, the mixing of the thawed mud, the firing of the clay, then the loading of the bricks upon the trucks, which transported their loads outside the prison. Those who refused to work, were forced. While carrying earth in his two-basket shoulder pole, Matthew heard a man screaming in the distance. Across the field, he saw a figure collapse to the ground, refusing or unable to continue his work. “You! And you!” a guard pointed and called out two inmates, who carried their own shoulder poles. With his head down while he continued to labor, Matthew peeked up to watch as the two men laid down their loads and walked over to the inmate sprawled on the earth and stood over him. One grabbed the prisoner under his left arm; the other grabbed under his right arm. They lifted him up. His knees buckled. He screamed. He fought. He flailed his arms. Matthew continued to watch inconspicuously, as he carried his own load. “Up!” the men yelled. The struggle continued. He screamed, yelled, twisted his body as they forced him to stand and placed the pole back on his shoulder. One man walked on one side, and the other walked on the other side of the man, forcing him along. “Go!” they yelled at him. “Go!” After several steps, the man went along, on his own, and the other two men returned to their own baskets of earth and resumed their own labor. It was a warning to all: Everyone must work. When assigned to carry the kiln-fired bricks, Matthew stood with his arms straight down his sides. He angled his hands behind his back, as another inmate loaded him down with a stack of freshly baked bricks. His back scorched, as he stumbled forward. Swaying under the 150-pound load, which weighed more than he did, he felt he could continue no longer. He looked up, toward the sky. Not a single cloud. God, I cannot do this anymore, he prayed in his heart, and before he could take a breath, the group leader walked over to him. “The guard wants to talk to you,” he said. Helping Matthew place the bricks on the ground, the group leader then led him over to the guard, sitting on a chair in the corner, supervising hundreds of men. “What’s your name?” asked the guard. “Koo.” “How old are you?” “Twenty-three.” “What did you do before you came here?” “I was a student.” “Did you labor before?” “No.” “You, go back.” The guard said nothing more. Matthew had never seen him before. And after that, he never saw him again. The next day, Matthew was transferred to work in a small vegetable garden, where the weak and old were sent to labor. For several months he tended to the plant beds, squatting down, pulling weeds and thinning out the Chinese cabbage and spinach. Then on August 15, 1956, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his group leader ordered him to report to the guard’s office. Worried, Matthew hurried, and when he arrived, he saw dozens of other inmates, and also a line of government officials, dressed in crisp-and-clean white uniforms with shiny buttons, which shone brilliantly in the gray-and-grim prison factory. “I give you good news,” announced one of the guards. “You will be taken back to Shanghai. All will be safe on the journey. It’s good for you all.” Matthew’s five-year sentence was cancelled, declared ping fan, all charges dropped. He would have a trial. But first, he would wait, again, in The Palace. ††† Back at Tilanqiao, Matthew received a visitor. “I am your lawyer,” explained the stranger sitting across the table from Matthew in the visiting room. “Your family paid me $8, and I will help you get out of prison.” “I didn’t ask for a lawyer,” Matthew told the stranger. “I don’t want a lawyer.” “Are you sure?” “Yes. I’m sure. I don’t want a lawyer,” he said, thinking, All I need to do to get out of prison is to surrender. I cannot lie. I cannot say anything against my conscience. Without any notice, sometime in October 1956, he was ordered out of his cell and transported to the Number 2 Intermediate People’s Court, in Shanghai’s Zikawei District, where he would finally have a court hearing. Handcuffed and wearing worn-out, soiled clothing, Matthew was escorted into the courtroom, where he faced the judge, seated higher than everybody else, and dressed in a crisp, spotless Mao suit buttoned to the neck. In the spectators’ gallery sat many Catholics, including Matthew’s family. He wanted to communicate to them that he had kept his faith, that he was still faithful to the Church, but he had no permission to talk. So, as soon as one of the guards unlocked and removed his handcuffs, he raised his right hand and with his fingertips, he tapped his forehead, chest, left shoulder then right shoulder, making the sign of the cross. With the atmosphere tense, no one dared make a sound. The judge asked Matthew a few questions, shuffled some papers around and after about 20 minutes, he cleared his throat. “Case closed,” the judge announced then stood up and walked out of the courtroom, without pronouncing the sentence. One of the guards handcuffed Matthew’s wrists together once again and ushered him from the courtroom toward the waiting police van. On the way out, he met his mother in the stairwell. Her face appeared calm. “I will see you later. I will be back home,” he hurriedly said to encourage her. He remained only a few days in Tilanqiao before being transferred to New Life Factory, an urban prison factory in Shanghai. Part of the assembly line, during the day, he prepared freshly dyed socks to dry. During free time after supper one day, Matthew walked in the exercise yard with Paul, a fellow seminarian. As they circled the enclosure, they secretly prayed the mysteries of the rosary together, barely audible, without moving their lips. Communication always proved difficult between imprisoned Catholics, so before they parted ways, the seminarian innocently slipped a piece of paper into Matthew’s hand. Back in the dorm, Matthew cautiously opened his fingers, looked at the paper and read, “We must be faithful to the Pope. We must be faithful to God.” This is very special, he thought of the note, with words to encourage him to remain strong in his faith. Wanting to keep the inspirational memento, he tucked the piece of paper between folds of material in a bundle of his clothing, which he used as his pillow. When ordered to the guard’s office, a few days later, he was surprised to be handcuffed without explanation, forced into a police car and transported to the Number 1 Detention Center. He had no idea why he had been moved there or what he had done. After a couple of weeks, he was taken to a room, nearly bare except for a small stool, a desk, a chair and a poster of Mao. He was ordered to sit on the short stool placed in front of a desk, behind which sat an interrogator. “Who wrote this?” the interrogator demanded, shaking a piece of paper in front of Matthew, who recognized it immediately. That is supposed to be in my belongings. How did that get in his hand? he wondered. It was the note from Paul, the seminarian, probably found when guards at the New Life Factory secretly searched through prisoners’ belongings. For the next several months, he was periodically interrogated, but never surrendered Paul’s name. He never betrayed his friend, not even when authorities confronted him about the seminarian’s identity. “We know it’s Paul!” the interrogator said. “If you know, then I don’t have to tell you,” Matthew responded. A second time he was transported to court, but when he entered the courtroom, there were only three people other than himself: the judge and two clerks on either side of the jurist. It was February 1958. For several seconds, without saying anything, the judge looked at Matthew, handcuffed, unwashed and wearing filthy clothing. Finally, the judge broke the silence. “Who do you think Kung, Pin-Mei is?” the judge asked, giving Matthew the opportunity to reduce his punishment by calling the bishop a counterrevolutionary. Oh, Holy Ghost, Spirit of Truth, tell me what to say, Matthew prayed silently. And then he just simply spoke, without thinking of the words. “According to nature, he is human being,” he answered. “According to nationality, he is Chinese. According to religion, he is bishop.” Happy with his inspired response, he no longer feared what would happen to him. The judge never mentioned the note from Paul, but because it had been found in his belongings, Matthew was charged with the intention of establishing a counterrevolutionary organization in the New Life Factory prison. For that, he received a sentence of seven years, added on to the previous sentence, which he finally learned was three years. He would have to serve a total of 10 years in prison, for laogai, short for laodong gaizo, reform through labor. Again, he would be transferred to a labor camp, to serve out his sentence, but first, he was permitted the opportunity to have one more visit with his family. On that special day, when the door opened to the visitor’s room, Matthew saw only his mother and Gertrude, his baby sister, the youngest of the seven children. Since the Communist takeover, much of the Koo family had been nearly destroyed. Matthew’s eldest brother, Dominic, had been a brilliant student. In August 1948, he had left Shanghai for America, after accepting a scholarship to Saint John’s University, in Collegeville, Minnesota. After the Communist takeover, in 1949, he was not permitted to return to his homeland, not even to attend the funeral of their father, who had died in 1951. Mary, Matthew’s elder sister, had fled to Taiwan, in 1950, and, like Dominic, was not permitted to return to the mainland. Joseph, his elder brother, had just been arrested, because he refused to register with the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which had been established on July 15, 1957, officially replacing the Three-Self Reform Movement. Eldest sister, Francesca, who had, perhaps, the best living situation, had married and moved in with her husband’s family, which was the Chinese tradition. Younger sister, Agnes, as soon as she graduated from secondary school, she was forced out of cosmopolitan Shanghai, to work in the bleak and backward countryside of Anhui province. And as for Mm-Ma and Matthew’s youngest sister, Gertrude, life had become very difficult. Finding themselves locked into desperate circumstances, they had been forced to sell the few remaining valuables in the home to street merchants, for pennies. The family visit lasted only minutes. When they would see each other again, no one knew. ††† In the cramped and stench-filled cattle car, Matthew leaned against his only worldly possessions in a rope-bound bundle. Countless hours crept by. Days, indistinguishable from nights. Finally, the train rolled to a stop before entering He Kou Station, the last depot on the rail line, in the faraway province of Chinghai (old form of Qinghai), the province of prisoners. From the train, prisoners boarded waiting transportation trucks that hauled Matthew and the others to Wangshike Prison Farm. Circumstances, brutal and barbaric. His cell, a roughly hewn cave. His bed, the bare earth. His toilet, a hole in the field. As the muddy spring of 1958 washed away into the summer fields, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, his fantasy campaign to transform China from the impoverished agricultural land of peasants into an industrialized nation of workers. Forced to take part in the movement’s steel production, peasants and prisoners were pulled from the fields and forced into the steelmaking process. Transferred from Wangshike to the Machine Tool Works, in Hsi-Ning (old form of Xining), the capital city of Chinghai, Matthew joined the masses in the Great Leap Forward. Four days after his arrival to the slave-labor factory, he was sent by his group leader to the tool department to retrieve a piece of equipment needed for the job. On the way back to the team, the lights dimmed then blacked out, plunging the factory into darkness. Because of the nation’s primitive utilities, power failures were not uncommon. Unfamiliar with the layout of the prison, he remained standing in place. Minutes passed, and the lights flickered back on, shining upon the prison again, Matthew rushed back to his labor group, happy to have accomplished his task by retrieving the necessary tool. But when he had failed to return immediately, the group leader reported him missing. One of the cadres approached him. “Why do you want to flee from the prison?” the cadre demanded. Matthew was stunned at the accusation. Not waiting for an answer, the cadre led him to a remote and isolated area, dotted with several small, cement structures that looked like traditional Chinese single-person tombs, giving the appearance of a small graveyard. Stopping abruptly at one of the tomblike structures no larger than a doghouse, he ordered Matthew inside. With the door no higher than his knees, he bent down to the ground and crawled inside the blackened box. His hands brushed atop a bed of straw that covered the floor, and when he sat up, his head bumped against the top. The walls were so close together that could only stretch out one arm at a time. For eight days, he remained in the dark cement tomb. Twice a day, the small wooden door suddenly popped open, when food was shoved through the hole. Then just as quickly, the small door slammed shut. On the ninth day, the cadre opened the door and ordered Matthew out. On his knees, he crawled out, through the door, and with difficulty, he stood, nearly falling down. In the dark for so long, he was unable to open his eyes. To return to the rock piles, was almost a relief. With a ball-peen hammer, he labored 16-hour days, breaking fist-sized rocks into thumb-sized rocks, all to be used for smelting. An older man hammering away at another pile of rocks caught his attention. Keeping his head down, he looked at the old man and recognized the former rector of his seminary, Father Chung-Liang (old form of Zhongliang) “Joseph” Fan (b. 1918, Society of Jesus). The two had been arrested the same night, September 8, 1955. Because the regime relied on interrogation tactics that pitted friend against friend, it was not safe to acknowledge friendships. So the two Catholics never fully communicated to one another. But, occasionally and silently, Matthew helped the old priest wash his threadbare clothing at the prison’s water pipe, on their one day off every two weeks. Then one morning, in the cold winter of March 1959, a guard ordered, “Gather your belongings.” With his few possessions in his arms, Matthew climbed into the back of one of the trucks in a long caravan that groaned up and around the mountain roads. Gazing from his seat, he noticed the gentle slope of the mountains on the one side of the road. But on the other side of the road, only inches from the truck’s tires, was the immediate drop of the steep cliffs into chasms below. Terrified, he clung to his seat. When the line of trucks reached Xinzhe Prison Farm, atop the Tibetan Plateau, in each direction of the compass he looked, he saw nothing but waves of grass bending in the breeze. Not a tree in the horizon. For the prisoners, tents were temporarily erected for barracks. Labor began immediately. From morning to night, Matthew pierced the earth with his shovel, turning the dirt of the virgin fields. Dig one, step one. Dig the earth, make it soft, then step forward. Dig one, step one. After tilling the soil, the prisoners planted seeds, one by one, row by row, field by field, impregnating the virgin earth with seeds of chingker, a highland barley suited for the short growing season on the plateau. With paltry servings spooned out each meal, prisoners never received enough food to calm the emptiness that gnawed at their stomachs. Then after the dismal autumnal harvest of 1959, only one year into the Mao’s Second Five-Year Plan, mealtime portions shrank even more. Limited to starvation rations, Matthew began losing weight and strength. Mao’s great fiasco, the Great Leap Forward, had disintegrated into the Great Chinese Famine. With too many mouths and too little food, Xinzhe Prison Farm had to shed some its prisoners. In May 1960, one of those ordered to pack up, Matthew rolled up his few rags and his mug into his quilt, which he placed into a wooden wagon pulled by a horse. He fell into formation, and the straggly line of starving, filthy prisoners trudged up the long slope from Xinzhe to Wayuxiangka Prison Farm. Without trees on the plateau, everything in the prison had been made from mud. Rough bricks from dried clay formed their dormitories, their small rooms and even their beds, which were covered with straw. During that chingker sowing and growing seasons, Matthew continued the backbreaking fieldwork, with minimal rations. By mid-summer, his body began to collapse. At 5-feet-9-inches tall, his usual adult weight hovered at 140 pounds, but with less and less food, and the same amount of work, his weight quickly dropped to 81 pounds. One afternoon back from the field, he sat down but couldn’t stand back up. Unable to lift his legs and without any help from others, he dragged himself on the ground all the way to the prison doctor’s clinic. With needle in hand, the doctor prepared to give Matthew an injection, but stopped, unable to, for he was only a living skeleton of flesh loosely stretched over bones. Unable to stand, he was removed from fieldwork and relocated to the Convalescence Team. In the morning, he crawled to the enclosure wall, against which he leaned and watched the sun rise. In the evening, he watched the sun set then crawled back to his dormitory. Between the risings and the settings, he watched a morbid procession. A steady stream of prisoners carried the corpses of other prisoners, famine victims, wrapped only in their bed quilts, which became their burial shrouds for their eternal rest. In his dormitory, Matthew wakened during the night, listening to the starving wolves, howling to one another atop the vast plateau, as they unearthed the corpses interred in the shallow mass graves. I am so thin, the wolves would never eat my body, he thought. After a year of recovery, Matthew was finally able to perform light labor, and he reported to Cadre Chang. “You are a waste,” Cadre Chang said, disgusted with Matthew for failing to perform hard labor in the fields. Assigned to the grindstone, Matthew gripped and pushed the wooden bar in front of him as he walked in circles, for 12 hours a day. Four other prisoners pushed their own sticks of wood stuck into the top stone that moved over the stationary bottom stone. A fifth prisoner stood on top and poured through a hole a steady stream of whole chingker that flowed between the stones to be ground into the barley flour for their main food: momo, the Tibetan dietary staple. Over the next year, Matthew worked at the grinding stone, until his strength returned, then he resumed the long days of heavy labor in the fields, turning sod, planting seeds, watering plants, cutting stalks, clearing fields, fertilizing earth. But at Wayuxiangka, the famine continued to claim lives until after the harvest of some vegetable crops in the summer of 1963. Nationwide, an incalculable number of Chinese had died because of the Party’s failed campaign to industrialize China. Death estimates have ranged from a minimum of 15 million to more than 45 million. Directly blamed on Mao’s Great Leap Forward, which focused on the increased mass production of steel, food-producing peasants were removed from the fields and placed in steel-making capacities. But Matthew, somehow, survived and continued to labor in the fields until one afternoon, in August 1965. “Pack your belongings,” his group leader told him. Back in the dormitory, Matthew stood at the kang bed he shared with the other prisoners. He gathered up his patched clothing, his mug, his few other small items and wrapped everything in his quilt, which he tied up with his closely guarded and highly valued piece of rope. “Koo will get out of prison!” his teammates cheered. Into a cart he placed his bundle, happy that his 10-year sentence was about to end, on September 7, and that he would have a future outside prison. Without looking back at Wayuxiangka Prison Farm, he rode off, headed for the New Life Team, temporary quarters for those transitioning from the life of a prisoner to that of a post-prisoner. To prepare the prisoners for their new life, the cadres in charge of the New Life Team arranged for Matthew and the other men to undergo brainwashing in small group sessions. Primarily, the men studied the government’s current policy, the Socialist Education Movement (1963-65), also known as the Four Cleanups Movement, to clean reactionary elements from politics, economy, organization and ideology. After a few days, Matthew was ordered to attend intense, one-on-one meetings with Cadre Chan, from the Big Team, headquarters for Wayuxiangka’s top cadres. Authorities needed to know Matthew’s political ideological thinking. For 18 days straight, Cadre Chan probed into Matthew’s thoughts. “Are you Chinese?” Cadre Chan asked. “Yes, of course,” Matthew answered. “Chinese must obey Chinese law.” “Yes, of course.” “Chinese law says that the Legion of Mary is a counter-revolutionary organization.” “The Legion of Mary is a religious organization.” “Why do you reject the government? Because you were fooled by the bishop and the priests? You are a fool. You follow them. You never listen to the People’s Government. If you love China, you must love Communism. The bishops and priests caused you to suffer. The government wants to save you. Come to the government, and you will be a free man. The government came to save you.” They came to save me, but they punish me, Matthew thought. As September 7 neared, Cadre Chan ordered Matthew to write his “confession,” a transcript in which he would admit his counter-revolutionary “crimes” against the State. Alone, Matthew prayed. He sobbed. He prayed some more. Conflict tore at his heart. If did not write his confession, he would not pass through the gate, he would not pass from prison to freedom. The following morning, with sorrow and trepidation, he sat at a desk and looked at the paper. He picked up the pen. He began to write. With the focus on semantics, he phrased everything very carefully, making certain that he never renounced his faith or his allegiance to the Pope. His narration described simply how he had been educated by foreign missionaries and how the People’s Government viewed the Legion of Mary as counterrevolutionary. Matthew passed the gate. ††† “Koo!” a cadre called to Matthew. “Your sentence is over. You’re not prisoner anymore. You’ve become detained employee, so you have to obey all the rules as a detained employee. Now you’re set free.” It was September 7, 1965. Matthew packed up his belongings. Completely overwhelmed by a feeling of numbness, he left behind the New Life Team as he walked out the big door and through the big gate. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that a People’s Liberation Army soldier watched him as he walked away, headed to the next labor farm. Matthew was to join the Number 5 Team. He was not free, after all. When arrested in 1955, Matthew lost his Shanghai hukou, his residential registration in Shanghai, which had been transferred to his labor camp when he arrived in Chinghai. However, just because he was no longer a prisoner, he was not entitled to change, on his own, his hukou from the labor camp back to Shanghai. Policy mandated that Chinese were to live where their residence was registered. To move his hukou anywhere, he would need permission, not only from the labor camp’s top cadre and ideology cadre, but also from the authorities in Shanghai, including the police headquarters, the neighborhood police station, the neighborhood association and his work unit. Hukou was a way for the authorities to control the masses. Since 1955, food and other necessities had been rationed, supplied and allocated according to a person’s hukou. Unable to move his hukou back to Shanghai, Matthew, was forced to remain in Chinghai, at a labor camp, as a post-prisoner, a detained employee. And because the People’s Government was in charge of labor and employment, he had to accept whatever work he was assigned, which was fieldwork. So, Matthew accepted his life. He had no choice. Over the years in Chinghai, he had watched as most fieldworkers wore out their bent, sinewy, sunburned bodies by the time they reached their 50s. Then they became part of the field, where they would spend their eternity under the same earth they had plowed, sowed and harvested. Afraid of dying young, Matthew, still in his 30s, contemplated how best to stay alive. All the men in his team needed a monthly haircut. They didn’t care how they looked; they just wanted to get a quick trim without having to waste an entire day walking many miles to and from the next labor camp with a resident barber. And since his team didn’t have a barber, he thought that could be his occupation, but first he needed experience. On his next day off, he cut the hair of a post-prisoner for free. His next day off, he trimmed the hair of two men for free. After that, each week, his number of customers grew, and he continued to gain experience. After a year of cutting hair for free, in 1969, he received permission to open up a barbershop in an abandoned guardhouse at the front gate. Round, just like a castle’s turret, the shop had just enough room for a few people, a chair, a small table to hold the wash basin, and on the wall was a chipped mirror just large enough to reflect a face. But still, during the busy seasons of planting and harvesting, he would be required to work in the fields. One beautiful autumn day, the bright sun warmed his back as he labored alongside the other post-prisoners in the fields, post-harvest. After the chingker had been gathered and the stems cut, the men had to turn the earth with their long-handled spades. Dig one, step one. A perfect day on the plateau, not a cloud in the sky, as one of the cadres rushed toward the men. It was September 9, 1976, a perfect day, indeed. The cadre had an announcement to make. “Chairman Mao died,” he told the men. A whistle blew in the distance, signaling everyone to stand very still. Matthew felt the need to pretend to be sad. He worried about not having the correct facial expression, of not being sad enough, but being too sad could be interpreted as a sign of insincerity. Filled with tension, the minutes crawled by, as he stood in the sunshine, holding his spade, completely still. A second whistle blew at the appropriate moment, and the post-prisoners resumed their work. After the dried stems had been cleared and the earth turned, a few weeks later Matthew returned to work in the barbershop. One afternoon, around 3 o’clock, just a few men were sitting around chatting, listening to the radio, when a voice on the government-controlled radio program announced, “The Gang of Four has been crushed.” “The winner has the final word,” said the Butcher, a common thief whose fingers had all been chopped off at the knuckles for what everyone believed was because of his thievery. Seemingly innocuous words, but they could have been perceived as very dangerous. For if the Butcher didn’t believe what the government announced on the radio, that cast doubt on his allegiance to the People’s Government, which could be interpreted that he was against the government, which meant that he was counterrevolutionary, which was the worst of the worst criminals: a political enemy. Such Bad Words, Bad Persons against the government were to be reported. Matthew worried that his failure to report the incident could result in serious repercussions, because he was responsible for everything in the barbershop, his workplace. If one of the other men in the barbershop filed a report, Matthew would find himself in deep trouble. So, he felt he had no option. He reported it. Cadres confronted the Butcher, who admitted that he had said what he had said. However, he falsely accused Matthew of first saying, “It’s just like a fight.” So all blame fell on Matthew. Later in the day, when he was busy tidying up the barbershop, Cadre Liu, the much-feared and much-hated cadre because of his vicious reputation, opened the door and stepped in. “From now on, you have to think about what you say in the barbershop,” Cadre Liu cautioned, then left, slamming the door shut behind him and locking it from the outside. Matthew stood inside, panicked. What did I do wrong? Why am I locked up? What happened? his mind raced. An intense fear ran through him that he would be re-arrested and would lose his post-prisoner status. He had only recently received a letter from his youngest sister, Gertrude, informing him that their elder brother, Joseph, had been arrested for listening to the Voice of America on the radio. Matthew worried about their mother, about what would happen to her if he were arrested again. For the first few hours, his thoughts, his mind and his heart were gripped with terror. But as the days passed, he calmed and reflected on his life. He realized and admitted to himself that he had a grave fault. I regret that I was afraid to offend the government, but I was not afraid to offend God, he thought. Then he made a decision. Please, dear holy Mother, please, save me, he prayed. Not for myself, but for my mother, please, don’t let them arrest me again. If you help me out of this difficulty, I will say the rosary every day, and I will keep my celibacy for the rest of my life. After several days, a cadre unlocked the door, and escorted Matthew to the auditorium. For three consecutive nights, forced to stand on a stage in front of the cadres and several hundred post-prisoners, Matthew was stripped, threatened, screamed at and accused. But he survived. Another week passed, as he remained in solitary confinement, while the accusations against him were investigated. Then just as soon as it had begun, it ended. Unable to determine guilt, the authorities unlocked the door, and he was permitted to resume his post-prisoner duties as barber. But he wasn’t the same as before. Through the ordeal, through the suffering, his faith had been reignited. And as a consolation for wrongly accusing him, the cadres permitted him a home visit. Previously allowed every two years to all post-prisoners, the visits had been suspended during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Since becoming a post-prisoner in 1965, Matthew had not had the opportunity to return home to Shanghai. ††† One very cold winter day, in 1977, Matthew boarded the long-distance bus that drove the 300 miles from the labor camp to the city of Hsi-Ning. While waiting for the train to Shanghai, another 1,400 miles away, he slept the night under a rug in a corner of the station. After three days and three nights of buses and trains and stopovers, Matthew arrived in Shanghai very late at night. It had been 22 years since he had last been home. Shanghai looked so different. The Cultural Revolution had been a movement of great destruction. With the intention of purging his political enemies, Communist Party Chairman Mao had urged the Red Guards, in 1966, to rid the country of anything that conflicted with him and his socialism. Targets included the Four Olds standard of morality (old tradition, old thought, old culture, old custom), which included temples, churches, ancient art and texts. Gone were the church steeples. As Matthew walked down the once-familiar streets, he saw Big Character Posters pasted all over walls and fences and buildings everywhere, with the smiling face of Mao staring down at him. The new Shanghai of the Communist was so vastly different from the old Shanghai of the Capitalist. Matthew made his way to 15 Museum Road, across the road from the Shanghai Museum. He opened the door, walked up to the third floor, rang the doorbell then walked in. His baby sister, Gertrude, was sitting on the couch and stood up when Matthew entered. Just a child when he had last seen her, she was a grown woman, 33 years old, holding in her arms a child of her own. His mother, barely awake, entered from her bedroom. Both were surprised to see a strange man walk into their home. “Mm-Ma, I am back home,” he said. Neither recognized Matthew. Their facial expressions revealed that they thought that he was a crazy homeless man. “I’m Matthew,” he said. His mother stared at him for several seconds, stunned. “I don’t recognize you. Only the forehead looks like the forehead of my son’s,” she said. Crushed, Matthew turned his head. But the unexpected visit turned into a long-deserved homecoming, which last for three weeks. After that, Matthew returned home every two years. He began reconnecting with Roman Catholics, the priests and faithful who refused to break off from the Pope and join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. For refusing to join the State-sanctioned church, many of the priests and faithful had been arrested. Unable to practice their religion in the open, the Church had been driven underground. These are sheep without a shepherd, parishioners without a priest, but they still have faith, he thought. His vocation never left him. There would be a way. Following the death of Mao, in 1976, one of Communist China’s leaders, Hsiao-Ping Teng (1904-97, old form of Xiaoping Deng), announced the Open Door Policy, in December 1978. For the financial benefit of China, the policy lifted the mainland’s bamboo curtain high enough to permit foreign businesses to establish companies and factories in China, with strict oversight by the Party. Russian had always been the preferred foreign language of the Chinese Communists, because of their close relationship with Russia, considered China’s Big Brother. But with English the lingua franca of the global economy, people everywhere in China wanted to learn English, for business purposes with the West. Even in Matthew’s labor camp, officials began an English class for families of guards and families of detained employees who lived in the camp with their post-prisoner relatives. There was only one problem. No one in the labor camp spoke English, except Matthew, who had attended Catholic schools and had learned Latin, as well. While taking a shortcut through the labor camp school, sometime in June 1980, Matthew met Cadre Ding, the local secretary of the Communist Party and headmaster at the school. Cadre Ding stopped Matthew and asked, “We want you to teach English at the labor camp school. Would you accept a teaching position?” Matthew declined. He explained that he wanted to return home to Shanghai, as soon as he was permitted, and if he were a teacher, he would not be able to return to the city of his birth. Not long after that serendipitous meeting, Matthew was walking in the labor camp, past the primary school, when he heard a record in the headmaster’s office playing very loudly over a loudspeaker, a song, in English. “Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year to you all! We are singing! We are dancing! Happy New Year to you all!” A very popular Chinese song, the lyrics, sung to the music of the 19th century American folk ballad “Oh, My Darling, Clementine,” was broadcast to the playground, where all the students did their morning exercises and saluted the flag. For 25 years, Matthew had heard no Western music, which was permitted to return to China after the Open Door Policy. The simple song sounded so beautiful. It touched his heart. Flooded with memories, he remembered being a child, running around the playground, singing the song with other little boys during recess at Saint Aloysius Primary School. In an instant, he made a decision. I will become a teacher, he thought. By chance, Matthew met Cadre Ding at the school gate. “I promise to you that if Shanghai authorities accept you to go back, the school will let you go,” Cadre Ding said. “OK. I accept,” Matthew said. And, thus, he began teaching in the fall, September 1980. During one of his home visits, for Chinese New Year in 1981, he went to the home of Father Hongsheng “Vincent” Zhu (1916-93, Society of Jesus, pinyin form of Hung-Sheng Chu). During the visit, the doorbell rang. An Italian missionary entered the room. “Did anybody see you ring?” Father Zhu asked his newly arrived visitor, Father Sergio Ticozzi (b. 1943, Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missionaries). “No,” answered Father Ticozzi. Father Zhu feared that Father Ticozzi had been seen by the local spies – busybodies in the neighborhood association who kept records on the priest and his visitors and reported all goings on to the local police. “This is my student,” Father Zhu said of Matthew, introducing him to Father Ticozzi. “He still keeps his vocation.” “Come to Hong Kong,” Father Ticozzi invited Matthew. “We have a seminary there.” “I am still in labor camp. I cannot go to Hong Kong.”Father Ticozzi then jotted down his address and handed the information to Matthew, who glanced at the writing before putting it away in his pocket. Before he left, they all posed for a photograph. Later, while by himself, Matthew removed his jacket, turned one of the sleeves wrong-side out, picked at the stitching, pulled at the thread and undid a seam. He then tucked the piece of paper with Father Ticozzi’s address into place and sewed up the seam again. He did not want to take the chance that officials in the labor camp would find that address, as they had found the note from Paul the seminarian years earlier. Matthew wanted to study at the seminary, he wanted to be a priest, and he shared his thoughts with a friend, Guo-Liang “Vincent” Chin, who had entered his first year of seminary at Zikawei one week before the big arrests, on September 8, 1955. “You want to be ordained?” Chin asked. “You go to Father Fan. He will help you, if you want to be ordained.” Yes, he wanted to visit Father Fan, the former rector of his seminary, whom he hadn’t seen since they were both in the Machine Tool Works prison factory, in Chinghai, in 1958. More than two decades had passed since then. Matthew’s vocation had never left him, but, first, he had to be free, he had to get out of the labor-camp system. He didn’t know how. He didn’t know when. But he knew he had to be free. One day his colleague, Yu, the physics teacher with a great reputation as a master teacher, had a question for Matthew. “Would you like to teach at a Gong He County school?” Yu asked. “Yes, I would like to leave the labor camp and teach at the county school, but I don’t know how to get there,” Matthew said. Yu had a connection. Not only did he instruct his good friend Matthew exactly where the school was, but he also told him how to find the headmaster. “The left side is the headmaster’s room. Knock, and he’ll let you in,” Yu said. So, one afternoon in the spring of 1984, even though he was a post-prisoner, Matthew asked camp authorities for a leave of absence. His excuse was that he needed something that he could only acquire outside the camp, which was true. With permission, he traveled to Gung He Number 2 Secondary School. During the interview, his demonstration of his English-teaching abilities so impressed the headmaster, that he immediately promised Matthew that he could have everything he wanted if only he would agree to teach there. After securing the job, Matthew patiently waited for the opportunity to escape from the labor camp. With Teng’s ascension to power, he began lifting the chains from the backs of the Chinese, including granting permission to any post-prisoner who left a labor camp to remain free as long as they committed no crime. One summer day, in 1984, a few months after Matthew’s interview in Gong He County, he was returning to his dormitory after shopping at a labor-camp street market. As he walked toward his room, he saw a commercial truck parked at the school’s front gate. He knew that the truck was not from the camp. The time had arrived. Matthew felt confident. Wearing his teaching clothes, he checked to make sure the package of the best quality of Chinese cigarettes, Big Front Gate, was sticking out of his shirt pocket. Never a smoker, he had purchased the cigarettes for others, as they always came in handy as little bribes for the cadres. Matthew approached the driver. “Can you take me to the long-distance bus station, just outside the labor camp?” Matthew asked. It was not an unusual question. Post-prisoner detained employees heading outside the labor camp for home visits or errands often asked for rides from the truck drivers. “Yeah,” the driver replied. Matthew walked back to his room and packed his two pieces of luggage: a battered leather suitcase in one hand and a rolled-up quilt in the other. After 29 years in prison labor camps, those were all the possessions in the world that he owned. He walked out the door a final time and rushed toward his future, to the truck and climbed in. It was Matthew’s last day in labor camp, and his first day in freedom. ††† From his mother’s home on Museum Road, Matthew turned his bicycle west, through Zikawei and rode about 20 minutes to Father Fan’s home, on his niece’s property in a Shanghai suburb. The old priest lived in one-half of a hayloft that had been converted into a room for him. Over the decades, in and out of prisons and labor camps for his faith, Matthew’s vocation had never left him. During his home visit for Chinese New Year 1985, he decided to visit the former rector of his seminary, Father Fan. Matthew entered the first floor of the doorless barn, stuffed with straw and stacked with a yoke, a plow, sundry agricultural tools and work clothes. He walked up the narrow wooden stairway, which was more like a ladder. At the top, to the left was the loft. To the right, he turned and knocked on the door, which had no handle. Matthew adopted a serious expression on his face. Father Fan pulled the door open, turned around and cast his eyes down toward the floor, for he never looked directly at anyone. “Hello, Matthew. You’ve come back for home visit,” the old priest said, very slowly, as he walked, with a limp, back to his small room. “Yes,” Matthew answered, as he entered and sat on a bare, wooden chair, without a cushion. The small, shabby room was no bigger than 14 feet by 20 feet and had no running water. The bed was very small, made of wood, just rough boards, with a piece of thin material spread over the bare lumber. A mosquito net draped over it. On the opposite wall was a window, and outside was a balcony, where Father Fan prayed his rosary. The walls were not covered with newspaper, like most homes. Just holy cards, holy pictures and holy statues. On the table, Matthew saw more holy cards: Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Little Flower, and Saint Joseph, Father Fan’s patron saint. The two men chatted about Shanghai. They also chatted about Chinghai. They both knew about Chinghai, the province of prisoners. One of the last times they saw one another was in 1958, when they were both imprisoned at Machine Tool Works, in Hsi-Ning, where they had hammered away at rock piles, forced to participate in Mao’s great failure, the Great Leap Forward. Father Fan confided in Matthew about the happiest time in his life. It had been during the Cultural Revolution, when the Red Guards tortured him, which caused him to limp for the rest of his life. “I felt that it was the happiest time in my life, because I felt that Jesus did not leave me alone, that Jesus suffered with me,” he said. During a lull in the conversation, Matthew remembered what his friend, Guo-Liang Chin, had told him: “You want to be ordained? You go to Father Fan. He will help you, if you want to be ordained.” Matthew took his opportunity. While riding his bicycle that morning, he had practiced what he was going to say. “I want to be ordained,” he blurted out. Father Fan said very slowly, “If you want to be ordained, you must study theology first.” Thoughtful, Father Fan always spoke very slowly, with his eyes cast downward. Whenever asked a question, he would place his hand upon his head, as if consulting with the Holy Spirit, and then he answered very slowly. After a few seconds, as if something came to his mind, he turned and faced his desk. On top were several holy pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a statue of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Against the eastern wall, the desk also served as his altar, where he kept his Missal for Mass. From a drawer, he pulled out two books, “Moral Theology” and “Dogmatic Theology,” and handed them to Matthew. “Read these. You must study first, to prepare,” Father Fan said. “I will read them everyday,” Matthew said, as he flipped through the pages of the two books, noticing that they had been published in the British crown colony of Hong Kong. And prepare, he did. When he returned to Chinghai, during the night, in his dorm room in Gong He County, Matthew secretly read the two books. For two years, he prepared. Then, in February 1988, he visited his mother in Shanghai, who was bedridden and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. When underground nun Chung-Ran “Elizabeth” Wang stopped by and agreed to look after his mother, he took the opportunity to visit Father Fan again. “I want to be ordained,” Matthew told Father Fan. “Before you are ordained, you must have a retreat,” Father Fan said. “It’s impossible. I am taking care of my mother 24 hours a day,” Matthew said. “If it’s God’s will, everything will be fulfilled,” Father Fan said. Matthew rushed home to his mother, and for one week, he made his retreat by his sick mother’s bedside. Then, he returned to Father Fan. First, on February 20, 1988, Father Fan ordained Matthew a deacon. He was 54 years old. Only then did Matthew realize that Father Fan was actually Bishop Fan, and that his shabby room in the barn loft was actually Bishop Fan’s chancellery, where he penned official letters to the Vatican. With Bishop Kung, the bishop of Shanghai, still incarcerated in Tilanqiao, Father Fan, with approval from the Vatican, had been consecrated a coadjutor bishop, on February 27, 1985, while still banished to Chinghai. But Matthew and the old priest never discussed that he had been secretly consecrated a bishop in the underground Church. It was just understood. Two days later, February 22, was ordination day. Matthew wore a button-down white shirt. No tie. An overcoat, because it was winter, with a jacket underneath, and under that, a sweater. He wore trousers that closed with a button and were held up with a belt, under which he wore dungarees, with a draw string and a button, the type worn for work. And black shoes. Bishop Fan prepared for the ordination Mass. He lit the two altar candles, prepared the water, the wine and one large Host, which the two would share. He then spread on the floor pages of the Liberation Daily, a propaganda newspaper published in Shanghai by the Communists. “Why are you putting newspaper on the floor?” Matthew asked. “We are performing an ordination. You have to prostrate yourself, and the floor is dirty,” Bishop Fan explained. During Mass, Matthew did, indeed, prostrate himself on the Liberation Daily newspaper, then after he rose, Bishop Fan placed his hands over Matthew’s head. Silence. Tears stung Matthew’s eyes, then Bishop Fan anointed Matthew’s hands with oil, making three signs of the cross. “Come Holy Ghost, Creator blest,” sang the two. “Vouchsafe within our souls to rest; come with Thy grace and heavenly aid and fill the hearts which Thou hast made.” Tears streamed down the cheeks of both men. Afterward, as a brand new priest, Matthew felt ecstatic, believing his was a very special ordination. Perhaps, the most special. I don’t belong to this world! he thought, as he rode his bicycle back to his mother’s home. And his life was in for more changes. His elder brother, Joseph, had moved to the United States, in 1985, and opened a business that imported swim fins manufactured in China. On February 25, 1987, he sent a letter to Matthew, encouraging him to join him in America. Unfortunately, there would be no reunion of the three Koo brothers. Their eldest brother, Dominic, who had left China in 1948 and was subsequently not allowed re-entry after the Communist regime closed the borders, eventually became a successful judge in Miami, Florida. But, even though never a smoker, he succumbed to lung cancer and died on February 23, 1981. With hopes of leaving China and joining Joseph in America, Matthew retrieved his overcoat and ripped open a seam that he had sewn years earlier. The piece of paper with Father Ticozzi’s address was still there. He wrote a letter to Joseph. “Dear Brother, I am in good condition now. I am teaching. I have a friend in Hong Kong. He would like to help me study abroad,” Matthew wrote, intentionally vague and cautious, for all letters could be read by the government. Weeks later, Matthew wrote to Joseph a second letter, in which he included Father Ticozzi’s name and address in Hong Kong. Joseph understood, and he contacted Father Ticozzi. Communication and the process took many months, but the two men arranged for Matthew to attend the Catholic Theological Union, in Chicago, Illinois, and obtained from the seminary the Form I-20, which was a necessary document for Matthew to obtain his visa. He already had his passport. Matthew traveled to the American consulate in Shanghai, where he met a man in charge of immigration. But the interview was not going well. Afraid his one opportunity to leave China was slipping away, he took a chance. “Please,” he begged, “I was in seminary and was arrested, in 1955, with Bishop Kung, then I was in prison for 10 years and labor camp for 19 years.” The young man looked at Matthew then left the room. He returned a few minutes later. “I discussed it with the head consulate. We will give you a study visa, not because of your brother’s invitation, not because of the I-20 from the Catholic Theological Union, but because you suffered a lot in prison,” he said. Matthew cried with happiness. Days later, he was at his mother’s home, when he received an official looking envelope. His sister Gertrude looked over his shoulder, as he opened it and looked at his visa. She let out a gasp. “What’s the matter?” he asked her. “Brother, do you see the issue date? The date is September 7. You were arrested on September 8. You should be set free on September 7. The Chinese government did not set you free. The American consulate set you free. Now, you are really free,” Gertrude said. Fearful that something could happen and that he could lose the opportunity to leave China, he wanted to leave as soon as possible. He quickly prepared for his departure. The first of October, he said goodbye to his mother, who lay on a couch, as his younger sisters, Agnes and Gertrude, tried to distract her with laughter. He looked at his frail mother, in failing health. I will never see her again, he thought, grief-stricken. Then Matthew, his sisters, and a few other family members all went together to the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. No one wanted to cry and dampen the celebratory feeling, so everyone kept the conversation light, as they stood outdoors and posed for a few last photographs. Only when they stepped inside the airport, did Matthew and his two sisters cry. “For 33 years, our brother had no freedom. Now, he has his freedom,” Gertrude said, wiping away the tears. And then it was time to go. Matthew walked toward the departure gate, and with a final wave, he turned and stepped through the doorway. On October 3, 1988, he arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, with new luggage in his hands, new clothing on his back and a new home in his future. Leaving the airplane through the jetway, he entered the terminal. A priest walked up to him. “Are you Matthew?” asked the priest. “Yes. Yes, I am.” ††† By Theresa Marie Moreau First published in the Remnant as a series of stories, from March to December 2014
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Religious Affairs Regulations Chapter I: General Provisions Article 1: These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws so as to ensure citizens’ freedom of religious belief, maintain harmony among and between religions, maintain social harmony, regulate the administration of religious affairs, and increase the level of legalification in work on religion. Article 2: Citizens have the freedom of religious belief. No organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in any religion (hereinafter referred to as religious citizens) or citizens who do not believe in any religion (hereinafter referred to as non-religious citizens). Religious citizens and non-religious citizens shall respect each other and co-exist in harmony, and so shall citizens who believe in different religions. Article 3: The management of religious affairs upholds the principles of protecting what is lawful, prohibiting what is unlawful, suppressing extremism, resisting infiltration, and fighting crime. Article 4: The State, in accordance with the law, protects normal religious activities,actively guides religion to fit in with socialist society, and safeguards the lawful rights and interests of religious groups, religious schools, religious activity sites and religious citizens. Religious groups, religious schools, religious activity sites, and religious citizens shall abide by the Constitution, laws, regulations and rules; practice the core socialist values; and preserve the unification of the country, ethnic unity, religious harmony and social stability. Religion must not be used by any individual or organization to engage in activities that endanger national security, disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or obstruct the State educational system, as well as other activities that harm State or societal public interests, or citizens’ lawful rights and interests, and other such illegal activities. Individuals and organizations must not create contradictions and conflicts between different religions, within a single religion, or between religious and non-religious citizens; must not advocate, support, or fund, religious extremism; and must not use religion to undermine ethnic unity, divide the nation or carry out terrorist activities. Article 5: All religions shall adhere to the principle of independence and self-governance; religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites and religious affairs, are not to be controlled by foreign forces. Religious bodies, religious schools, religious activity sites, and religious professionals are to develop external exchange on the basis of mutual respect, equality, and friendship; other organizations or individuals must not accept any religious conditions in external cooperation or exchange in economic, cultural or other fields. Article 6: All levels of people's government shall strengthen work on religion, establish and complete mechanisms for work on religion, and ensure the strength of and the necessary conditions for the work. The religious affairs departments of the people’s governments at the county level or above are to lawfully carry out management of religious affairs that involve State or public interests, and the other departments of the people’s governments at the county level or above are to be responsible for the management of relevant affairs within the scope of their respective functions and duties. People's governments at the township level shall complete efforts for the management of religious affairs within their own administrative areas. Villagers' committees and residents' committees shall lawfully assist people's governments in managing religious affairs. All levels of people’s governments shall hear the views of religious groups, religious schools, religious activity sites, and religious citizens, and coordinate the management of religious affairs so as to provide public services to religious groups, religious schools and religious activity sites. Chapter II: Religious Groups Article 7: The establishment, modification, or deregistration of a religious group shall be registered in accordance with the relevant State provisions on the management of social groups. The charters of religious groups shall comply with the relevant State provisions on the management of social groups. Activities carried out by religious groups in accordance with their charters are protected by law. Article 8: Religious groups have the following functions: (1) assisting the people's governments in the implementation of laws, regulations,rules, and policies, to preserve the lawful rights and interests of religious citizens; (2) Guiding religious affairs, formulating a system of rules and supervising their implementation; (3) engaging in religious cultural study, explaining the religious doctrines and canons, and carrying out the construction of religious ideology; (4) carrying out religious education and training, cultivating religious professionals, and designating and managing religious professionals; (5) such other functions as laws, regulations, rules and religious groups' articles of association provide. Article 9: National religious groups and those of the provinces, autonomous regions, and directly-governed municipalities may, based on the need of their respective religions, select and receive religious students studying overseas in accordance with provisions; other organizations or individuals must not select and accept religious students studying overseas. Article 10: Religious schools, religious activity sites, and religious professionals shall abide by the rules formulated by religious groups. Chapter III: Religious Schools Article 11: Religious schools are established by national religious groups or by the religious groups of provinces, autonomous regions, and directly-governed municipalities. Other organizations or individuals must not establish religious schools. Article 12: The establishment of religious schools shall be by upon application of the national religious groups to the religious affairs department under the State Council, of application of the religious groups of provinces, autonomous regions, directly-governed municipalities to the departments religious affairs for the people's government of that province, autonomous region, or directly-governed municipalities. The religious affairs departments of provincial, autonomous region, or directly governed municipality people's governments shall make a recommendation within 30 days of receiving the application; and report to the department of religious affairs under the State Council. The religious affairs department under the State Council shall make a decision to approve or not approve within 60 days of receiving a national religious group's application, or the report materials from the religious affairs departments of people's governments for provinces, autonomous regions, or directly-governed municipalities. Article 13: Religious schools shall meet the following conditions to be established: (1) Have clear training objectives, school regulations, and curriculum plans; (2) Have a source of students that meet the requirements for training; (3) Have the necessary school funding and stable sources of funds; (4) Have teaching sites, facilities, and equipment necessary for the pedagogic mission and teaching model; (5) Have a full-time responsible party for the school, qualified full-time teachers, and internal management organizations. (6) a reasonable configuration. Article 14: Religious schools established upon approval may apply to register as legal persons in accordance with relevant provisions. Article 15: Religious schools shall follow the provisions of article 12 of these regulations in handling changes of their addresses, school names, affiliations, training objectives, education systems, or school sizes, or where merging, dividing, or terminating. Article 16: Religious schools are to carry out designated systems for verification of teachers' qualifications, review of titles, and giving of degrees; with specific measures separately formulated by the department of religious affairs under the State Council. Article 17: Religious schools hiring foreign professional staff shall do so after the State Council religious affairs department consents, and go to the department for administration of foreign workers for their area to handle the relevant formalities. Article 18: Religious groups and temples, Taoist temples, mosques, and churches (hereinafter temples and churches), carrying out religious education and training to cultivate religious professionals where the training period is 3 months or more, shall hall report for review and approval to the religious affairs departments of local people's governments at the districted city level or higher. Chapter IV: Religious Activity sites Article 19: Religious activity sites include temples and churches and other fixed locations for religious activity. Standards for distinguishing temples and churches and other fixed sites for religious premises are to be formulated by the religious affairs departments of provincial, autonomous region, or directly governed municipality people's governments, and reported to the religious affairs department under the State Council to be filed for the record. Article 20: Religious activity sites shall meet the following conditions to be established: (1) The purpose of their establishment is not contrary to articles 4 and 5 of this Regulation; (2) The local religious citizens have need to regularly conduct collective religious activities; (3) there are religious professionals or other personnel meeting the requirements of the religion who intend to preside over the religious activities; (4) have the necessary funds from legal sources and channels; (5) Have a reasonable configuration meeting the requirements of urban and rural planning, and not impeding the ordinary lives and production of surrounding units and residents. Article 21: In preparation for the establishment of a religious activity site, religious groups are to submit applications to the religious affairs department of the county-level people's governments for the area where the religious activity site will be. Within 30 days of religious affairs departments of county-level people's governments receiving an application; they shall report to the religious affairs department of districted cities' people's government. Religious affairs departments for districted city level people's governments shall, within 30 days of receiving reported materials from a county-level people's governments' religious affairs department, make a decision to approve or reject give approval or reject applications to establish other fixed religious activity sites; where the application is for the establishment of temples and churches, it shall issue verification comments and report to the religious affairs department of the provincial, autonomous region, or directly governed municipality people's government for review and approval. The religious affairs department of provincial, autonomous region, or directly governed municipality people's governments shall make a decision to approve or not approve within 30 days of receiving the report materials from the religious affairs departments of people's governments for districted cities. Only after an application for the establishment of a religious activity site has been approved, may preparations to build the religious activity site be handled. Article 22: After religious activity sites have been approved for preparations and completed construction, they shall apply for registration with the religious affairs department of the county-level people's government for that area. Religious affairs departments of county-level people's governments shall, within 30 days of receiving an application, conduct a review of the religious activity site's management organization and regulatory system, and issue a “Religious Activity Site Registration Certificate”. Article 23: Religious activity sites meeting the requirements for legal personhood, may register as legal persons with the civil affairs departments upon the consent of an area religious group and reporting to the religious affairs department of a County Level people's government for review and consent. Article 24: Where religious activity sites terminate or modify the content of their registration, they shall handle the formalities corresponding to the cancellation or modification of registration with the original registration management organ. Article 25: Religious activity sites shall establishment management organizations and implement democratic management. The members of religious activity sites' management organizations are selected according to democratic consultation, and are reported to that site's registration management organs to be filed for the record. Article 26: Religious activity sites shall strengthen internal management, and follow relevant laws, regulations and rules to establish and complete systems for the management of personnel, finances, assets, accounting, security, fire protection, protection of relics, health and disease prevention and so forth; and will accept the guidance, supervision and inspection of relevant departments of the local people's government’s Article 27: Religious affairs departments shall conduct oversight and inspections of religious activity sites' compliance with laws, regulations, and rules; the establishment and implementation of site management systems; the modification of registration matters; as well as religious activities and activities involving foreign entities. Religious activity sites shall accept oversight and inspections from religious affairs departments. Article 28: Religious goods, crafts, and publications may be sold within religious activity sites. Article 29: Religious activity sites shall guard against incidents that harm the religious sentiment of religious citizens, undermine ethnic unity, and influence social stability, such as the occurrence of major accidents on the premises or violation of religious taboos. When the incidents or matters listed in the preceding paragraph occur, religious activity sites shall immediately report them to the religious affairs department of the county-level people's government for that area. Article 30: Religious groups, temples and churches intending to build large outdoor religious statues shall have provincial, autonomous region, or directly governed municipality religious groups submit an application to the religious affairs department of a provincial, autonomous region, or directly governed municipality people's governments. The religious affairs departments of provincial, autonomous region, or directly governed municipality people's governments shall make a recommendation within 30 days of receiving the application; and report to the department of religious affairs under the State Council. The religious affairs department under the State Council shall make a decision to approve or not approve within 60 days of receiving a report on the construction of a large outdoor religious statue. Organizations and individuals other than religious groups, temples and churches must not construct large outdoor religious statues. The construction of large outdoor religious statues outside of temple and church grounds is prohibited. Article 31: Relevant units and individuals setting up commercial service outlets, organizing displays and exhibitions, or filming movies and television, and carrying out other activities in religious activity sites, shall first obtain the consent of the religious activity sites. Article 32: All levels of local people's government shall include the establishment of religious activity sites in their land use plans and urban-rural planning, based on actual needs. The construction of religious activity sites and large outdoor religious statues shall conform with overall land use plans, urban-rural plans, and relevant laws and regulations such as on engineering, construction and preservation of artifacts. Article 33: Reconstruction or construction of new buildings in religious activity sites shall be done after approval by the religious affairs department of a local people's government at the county level or above, and then handling formalities such as for planning and construction. Expansion of religious activity sites, or rebuilding in different locations, should be handled in accordance with the procedures provided in article 21 of these Regulations. Article 34: Where there are religious activity sites in scenic areas, local people's governments at the county level or above shall coordinate and handle interests and relationships between the religious activity sites and scenic area management organizations, in areas such as gardens, forestry, cultural relics, tourism and so forth, to preserve the lawful rights and interests of religious activity sites, religious professionals, and religious citizens, and to protect normal religious activities. The planning and construction of scenic areas with religious activity sites as the primary sightseeing attraction, shall be coordinated with the style and environment of the religious activity sites. Article 35: Where religious citizens need to regularly conduct collective religious activities, but don't possess the conditions for applying to set up religious activity sites, a representative of the religious citizens is to submit an application to the religious affairs department of the county-level people's government, and after the religious affairs department for the county-level people's government solicits the opinions of local religious groups and township-level people's governments, it may designate a temporary activity site for them. Under the guidance of the religious affairs departments of county-level people's governments, township-level people's governments conduct oversight of activities at temporary activity locations. After they possess the conditions for setting up religious activity sites, reviews, approvals and registration formalities for establishing religious activity sites are to be completed. Religious activities at temporary activity sites shall comply with the relevant provisions of these Regulations. Chapter V: Religious Professionals Article 36: Upon affirmation by a religious group and reporting to the religious affairs department of a people's government at the county level or above to be filed for the record, religious professionals may engage in professional religious activities. The succession of living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism is to be conducted under the guidance of Buddhist groups and in accordance with the religious rites and historical conventions, and is to be reported for approval to the religious affairs department of people’s governments at the provincial level or above or to a people's government at the provincial level or above. The national Catholic national religious group is to report Catholic bishops to the religious affairs department under the State Council to be filed for the record. Those that have not obtained or have lost religious professional credentials, must not engage in activity as religious professionals. Article 37: Where religious professionals serve or depart as the chief religious professionals of religious activity sites, upon consent of that religion's religious group, it is to be reported to the religious affairs department of the people’s government at the county level or above for the record. Article 38: Religious professionals presiding over religious activities, conducting religious ceremonies, sorting religious scriptures and conducting of religious and cultural research, and carrying out public interest charitable activities and other such activities, are protected by law. Article 39: Religious professionals lawfully participate in social security and enjoy the corresponding rights. Religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites shall handle social insurance registration for religious professionals in accordance with provisions. Chapter VI: Religious Activities Article 40: Collective religious activities of religious citizens shall , in general, be held at religious activity sites, be organized by religious activity sites, religious groups, or religious school organizations; and be presided over by religious professionals or other persons meeting the requirements of that religion's rules; and conducted according to religious doctrines and canons. Article 41: Non-religious groups, non-religious schools, non-religious activity sites,or non-designated temporary activity sites must not hold religious activities, must not accept religious donations. Non-religious groups, non-religious schools, and non-religious activity sites, must not carry out religious training and must not organize citizens leaving the country to participate in religious training, meetings, activities and so forth. Article 42: Where a large-scale religious activity, which crosses-provinces, autonomous regions and directly governed municipalities is held that is beyond the accommodation capacity of a religious activity site, or where a large-scale religious activity is to be held outside a religious activities site, the religious group, church or temple sponsoring the activity shall, 30 days before the activity is to be held, submit an application to the religious affairs department of the people’s government for the province, autonomous region or municipality The religious affairs department of the people’s government for districted cities shall, within 15 days from the date of receiving an application, is to make a decision of approval or disapproval after soliciting the opinions of the public security organs for that level of people's government. Where a decision to approve is made, the approving organ is to record it with the provincial level people's government's religious affairs department. Large-scale religious activities shall, as required indicated in the written notification of approval, to proceed in accordance with religious rites and rituals, and must not violate the relevant provisions of Articles 4 and 5 of these Regulations. The sponsoring religious group or church or temple shall employ effective measures to prevent the occurrence of accidents and guarantee that large-scale religious activities are conducted safely and orderly. The township-level people’s government and the relevant departments of the local people’s government at the county level or above for the place where such large-scale religious activities are to be held shall, within the limits of their respective functions and duties, carry out the necessary management and guidance. Article 43: The national Islamic religious group is responsible for the making of hajj abroad by Chinese citizens who believe in Islam. Article 44: It is prohibited to proselytize, hold religious activities, establish religious organizations, or set up religious activity sites in schools or educational bodies other than religious schools. Article 45: Religious groups, religious schools, and churches and temples may, in accordance with the relevant national provisions, compile and distribute internal religious informational publications. Religious publications for public distribution are to be handled in accordance with the relevant national provisions on the administration of publications. Publications involving religious contents shall comply with laws and regulations on the administration of publications, and must not contain the following content: (1) that which undermines the harmonious co-existence between religious and non-religious citizens; (2) that which undermines the harmony between different religions or within a religion; (3) that which discriminates against or insults religious or non-religious citizens; (4) that which advocate religious extremism; (5) that which contravenes the principle of religions' independence and self-governance. Article 46: Religious publications or printed matter that exceeds personal use and reasonable quantities brought into the mainland, or otherwise imported, shall be handled in accordance with relevant state regulations. Article 47: Engagement in internet religious information services shall be upon the review and consent of the religious affairs department for a people's governments at the provincial level or above, and handle it in accordance with the relevant state provisions on internet information services management. Article 48: Information on internet religious information services shall comply with relevant laws, regulations,and rule' relevant provisions on the management of religious affairs. Internet religious information services' content must not violate the provisions of paragraph 2 of article 45 of these Regulations. Chapter VII: Religious Assets Article 49: Religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites follow laws and relevant state provisions to manage and use assets that they lawfully occupy and that are collectively owned assets belonging to the State; and enjoy ownership or other property rights with regards to other lawful assets in accordance with law. Article 50: Religious groups', religious schools' , and religious activity sites' lawful use of land; lawful ownership or use of buildings, structures, and facilities, as well as of other lawful assets and proceeds; are protected by law. The lawful assets of a religious groups, religious schools or religious activities sites must not be encroached upon, plundered, privately divided, damaged, or, illegally sealed up, seized, frozen, confiscated or disposed of by any organization or individual, and cultural relics possessed or used by religious groups, religious schools, or religious activities sites must not be damaged. Article 51: Immovable property such as the houses owned and the land used by religious groups, religious schools, or religious activities sites shall be registered on application with the real estate registration institution for the people’s government at the county level or above in accordance with law, and be granted a real estate ownership certificate; where the property rights are modified or transferred, the formalities for alteration or transfer of registration shall be promptly handled When altering or transferring the land-use rights of a religious group, religious school, or a religious activities site, the real estate registration institutions shall solicit the opinions of the religious affairs department of the people’s government at the same level. Article 52: Religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites are non-profit organizations; their assets and income shall be used in activities consistent with their religious purpose and in public interest charitable matters, and they must not distributed. Article 53: Organizations and individuals that give donations for the construction of religious activity sites do not enjoy ownership or usage rights in the religious activity sites, and must not receive economic benefit from the religious activity sites. It is prohibited to invest in or contract management of religious activity sites or large-scale outdoor religious statues, and it is prohibited to commercial promotions in the name of religions. Article 54: The houses and structures used for religious activities by a religious activities site, as well as their accessory houses lived in by religious professionals must not be transferred, mortgaged or used as investments in kind. Article 55: Where the houses of a religious group, religious school, or a religious activities site need to be demolished due to the needs of the public interest, it shall be done in accordance with the national laws and regulations on demolition of houses. Religious groups, religious schools, or religious activity sites may elect monetary compensation, and may also select exchange of real estate rights or reconstruction. Article 56: Religious groups, religious schools, religious activity sites, and religious professionals may lawfully initiate public interest charitable endeavors. Public interest charitable activities must not be used to proselytize by any organization or individual. Article 57: Religious groups, religious schools or religious activities sites may, in accordance with the relevant national provisions, accept donations from organizations and individuals at home or abroad, which shall be used for the activities that are commensurate with the purpose of the religious group or the religious activities site. Religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites must not accept donations from foreign organizations or individuals that have conditions attached, and where the amount donated exceeds 100,000 RMB; it shall be reported to the religious affairs department of the people's governments at the county level or above for review and approval. Religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites may accept contributions from citizens in accordance with religious custom, but contributions must not be compelled or levied. Article 58: Religious groups, religious schools or religious activities sites shall implement the national unified systems for finance, assets, and accounting, and report to the religious affairs department of the people’s government at the county level or above for the place where it is located on its income and expenditure, and on the acceptance and use of donations as well, and, in an appropriate way, make such information public to religious citizens. The religious affairs departments shall share relevant information with the relevant departments. Religious groups, religious schools or religious activities sites shall, in accordance with national systems on finances and accounting, establish and complete systems audits, financial reporting, financial disclosures, and other such systems; and establish and improve financial management bodies, and allot the necessary financial accounting staff to strengthen financial management. The relevant government departments may organize finance and asset inspections, and audits of religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites. Article 59: Religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites shall handle tax registrations for religious professionals in accordance with law. Religious groups, religious schools, religious activity sites, and religious professionals shall lawfully handle tax declarations, and enjoy tax benefits in accordance with relevant state provisions. Tax departments shall lawfully implement taxation management for religious groups, religious schools, religious activity sites, and religious professionals. Article 60: Where religious groups, religious schools, and religious activity sites are deregistered or terminated, an asset liquidation shall be carried out, and assets remaining after the liquidation shall be used for purposes conforming to their religious purpose. Chapter VIII: Legal Responsibility Article 61: Where state personnel in the management of religious affairs abuse their authority, play favorites, neglects his duty or commits illegalities for personal gain, they shall be punished in accordance with law; where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law. Article 62: Where citizens are compelled to believe in, or not to believe in religion, or where normal religious activities conducted by a religious group, religious school or a religious activities site are interfered with, the religious affairs department is to order corrections; where there are violations of public security management, public security administrative sanctions are to be given in accordance with law. Where the lawful rights and interests of a religious group, religious school, religious activities site or a religious citizen are infringed, civil liability is born in accordance with law; where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law. Article 63: Advocating,supporting, or funding religious extremism,or using religion to to harm national security or public safety, undermine ethnic unity, divide the nation,or conduct terrorist activities and separatism or terrorist activities, infringing upon citizens’ rights in their persons and democratic rights, impeding the administration of public order, or encroaching upon public or private property; where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law; where no crime is constituted, the relevant competent department are to give administrative punishments in accordance with law; and where losses are caused to citizens, legal persons or other organizations, civil liability in borne in accordance with law. Where religious groups, religious schools or religious activity sites carry out any of the conduct in the preceding paragraph and the circumstances are serious, the relevant departments shall employ necessary measures to rectify it, and those refusing rectification are to have their registration certificate or establishment permit revoked in accordance with law by the registration management organs or organ that approved establishment. Article 64: Where there are situations in the course of large scale religious activities that endanger national security or public safety, or seriously undermine public order, the relevant departments are to handle it and give punishments in accordance with laws and regulations; where the primary organizing religious group, temple or church bears responsibility, the registration management organ shall order them to withdraw and change the principle responsible person, and where circumstances are serious, the registration management organs are to revoke registration certificates. Where large scale religious activities are organized without authorization, the religious affairs department together with the relevant departments are to order that the activities be stopped, and may give a concurrent fine of between 100,000 and 300,000 yuan; and where there are unlawful gains or illegal assets, confiscate them. Of these, where large scale religious activities are organized without authorization by religious groups or religious activity sites, the registration management organs may also order that religious group or religious activity site to withdraw and change the directly responsible management personnel. Article 65: Where a religious group, religious school, or religious activities site commits any of the following acts, the religious affairs department is to order it to make corrections; where the circumstances are relatively serious, the registration management organ, or organ that that approved establishment, is to order the religious group, religious school, or the religious activities site to dismiss and replace the directly responsible; management personnel and where the circumstances are serious, the registration management organ, or organ that that approved establishment, is to order that daily activities be stopped, that management organizations be reorganized, and a period of rectification; where rectification is refused, the registration certificate or establishment permits are revoked in accordance with law; and where there are unlawful gains or illegal assets, they are to be confiscated: (1) failing to follow the registration modification or recording formalities; (2) religious schools violating the requirements of their training objectives, school regulations, and course setup; (3) religious activities sites violating Article 16 of these Regulations, by failing to formulate relevant management systems, or failing to have management systems meet the requirements; (4) religious activity sites violating article 54 of these provisions by transferring, mortgaging, or investing buildings, structures and living quarters for religious professionals; (5) failing to promptly report the occurrence of major accidents or incidents in a religious activities site, and causing serious consequences; (6) contravening the principle of religions' independence and self-governance in violation of the provisions of Article 5 of these Regulations; (7) Violating national regulations in accepting domestic or foreign donations; (8) refusing to accept supervision and management lawfully carried out by the administrative management organs. Article 66: Where activities in temporary activity sites violate the relevant provisions of these Regulations, the religious affairs department is to order corrections; where the circumstances are serious, they are to order a stop to the activities and revoke the temporary activity site; where there are unlawful gains or illegal assets, they are to be confiscated. Article 67: Where religious groups, religious schools and religious activity sites violate the relevant management provisions on finances, accounting, assets and taxation, departments of finance, taxation and so forth will give punishments in accordance with the relevant provisions; where the circumstances are serious, upon proposal by the finance and taxation departments, the registration management organs, or organ that approved establishment, are to lawfully revoke registration certificate or establishment permits. Article 68: Where any publications or internet religious information services involving religious content contain content prohibited by the second paragraph of Article 45 of these Regulations, the relevant departments are to impose administrative punishments upon the relevant responsible units and persons in accordance with law; and where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law. Where internet religious information services are engaged in without authorization or where services are provided exceeding the scope of an approved and recorded project, the relevant departments handle it in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. Article 69: Where a religious activities site is established without authorization, or where a religious activity sites site that has had its registration revoked or registration certificate cancelled continues to carry out religious activities, or where a religious school is established without authorization, the religious affairs department, together with the relevant departments are to shut it down and confiscate the unlawful gains or illegal assets if any; where the unlawful gains or illegal assets cannot be determined, a fine of up to 50,000 yuan is imposed; the illegal houses or structures, if any, shall be disposed of by the planning and construction departments in accordance with law; and where there is conduct in violation of public security management, a public security administrative sanction is be imposed in accordance with law: Where a non-religious group, non-religious school, non-religious activity site, or site not designated for temporary activities organizes or holds religious activities or accepts religious donations, the religious affairs department, together with the departments for public security, civil affairs, construction, education, culture, tourism, cultural artifacts, and so forth, will order it to discontinue the activities and will confiscate the unlawful gains and illegal assets, if any; and may give a fine of between one and three times the value of unlawful gains; where it is not possible to determine the unlawful gains,a fine of up to 50,000 RMB is given; and where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law. Article 70: Where, without authorization, religious citizens are organized to leave the mainland to participate in religious trainings, meetings, the hajj or other such activities, or religious education and training is carried out without authorization, the religious affairs department, together with the relevant departments, is to order it to discontinue the activities, may impose a concurrent fine of between 20,000 and 200,000 yuan, and is to confiscate the unlawful gains, if any; where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law. Where there is proselytization, organizing of religious activities, establishment of religious organizations, or establishment of religious activity sites in schools or educational institutions other than religious schools; the organ of review and approval or other relevant departments are to order corrections to be made within a certain time and give warnings; where there are unlawful gains, they are to be confiscated; where there circumstances are serious, order that enrollment is to be stopped and cancel education permits; and where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law. Article 71: Where conditions are provided for unlawful religious activities religious activities, the religious affairs departments are to give a warning and confiscate the unlawful gains or illegal assets, if any; where the circumstances are serious, a fine of between 20,000 and 200,000 yuan is to be imposed; where there are illegal buildings or structures, they are to be disposed of by the departments for planning and construction in accordance with law; and where there is conduct in violation of public security management, a public security administrative sanction is be given by in accordance with law. Article 72: Where these Regulations are violated by constructed large scale outdoor religious statues, the religious affairs department together with the departments for land, planning, construction, tourism and so forth, are to order that work be stopped, and demolished within a set time; and confiscate unlawful gains if any; where circumstances are serious, a fine of between 5-10% of the construction costs is imposed. Where there is investment in or contracting of operations of religious activity sites or large outdoor religious statues, the religious affairs department together with departments for industry and commerce, planning, construction, and so forth will order corrections and confiscate unlawful gains ; where the circumstances are serious, the registration management organs will revoke the religious activity site's registration certificates, and investigate the responsibility of relevant parties. Article 73: Where religious professionals exhibit any of the following conduct, the Religious Affairs Department will give a warning, confiscate unlawful gains and confiscate illegal assets; where the circumstances are serious, the Religious Affairs Department will recommend that the relevant religious group, religious school or religious activity sites temporarily stop them from presiding over religious affairs activities or revoke their status as religious professionals; and pursue the responsibility of the relevant religious group, religious school, or religious activity sites' responsible party, and where there is conduct in violation of public security management,e a public security administrative sanction is given in accordance with law; and where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law: (1) advocating, supporting, or funding religious extremism, undermining ethnic unity, dividing the nation, and conducting terrorist activities, or participating in related activities; (2) accepting domination by external forces, accepting clergy from foreign religious groups or organizations without authorization, as well as otherwise going against the principle of religious independence and self-governance; (3) Violating national regulations in accepting domestic or foreign donations; (4) organizing, or presiding over unapproved religious activities held outside of religious activity sites; (5) other acts in violation of laws, regulations, or rules. Article 74: Where anyone impersonates religious professionals to carry out illegal acts such as conducting professional religious activities or defrauding funds, the religious affairs departments are to order it that the activities be discontinued; and confiscate the unlawful gains and illegal assets, if any; and give a concurrent fine of up to 10,000 yuan; where there are violations of public security, public security administrative sanctions are given in accordance with law; and where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law. Article 75: Where anyone is dissatisfied with administrative acts taken by the religious affairs departments, they may lawfully apply for an administrative reconsideration; where dissatisfied with the decision of the administrative reconsideration, they may lawfully raise an administrative lawsuit. Chapter IX: Supplementary Provisions Article 76: Religious exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan, are handled in accordance with relevant laws, administrative regulations, and relevant national provisions. Article 77: This Regulation shall become effective on February 1, 2018. source: https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/宗教事务条例-2017/?lang=en 中华人民共和国国务院令 第686号 《宗教事务条例》已经2017年6月14日国务院第176次常务会议修订通过,现将修订后的《宗教事务条例》公布,自2018年2月1日起施行。 总 理 李克强 2017年8月26日 宗 教 事 务 条 例 (2004年11月30日中华人民共和国国务院令第426号公 布 2017年6月14日国务院第176次常务会议修订通过) 第一章 总 则 第一条 为了保障公民宗教信仰自由,维护宗教和睦与社会和谐,规范宗教事务管理,提高宗教工作法治化水平,根据宪法和有关法律,制定本条例。 第二条 公民有宗教信仰自由。 任何组织或者个人不得强制公民信仰宗教或者不信仰宗教,不得歧视信仰宗教的公民(以下称信教公民)或者不信仰宗教的公民(以下称不信教公民)。 信教公民和不信教公民、信仰不同宗教的公民应当相互尊重、和睦相处。 第三条 宗教事务管理坚持保护合法、制止非法、遏制极端、抵御渗透、打击犯罪的原则。 第四条 国家依法保护正常的宗教活动,积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应,维护宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所和信教公民的合法权益。 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所和信教公民应当遵守宪法、法律、法规和规章,践行社会主义核心价值观,维护国家统一、民族团结、宗教和睦与社会稳定。 任何组织或者个人不得利用宗教进行危害国家安全、破坏社会秩序、损害公民身体健康、妨碍国家教育制度,以及其他损害国家利益、社会公共利益和公民合法权益等违法活动。 任何组织或者个人不得在不同宗教之间、同一宗教内部以及信教公民与不信教公民之间制造矛盾与冲突,不得宣扬、支持、资助宗教极端主义,不得利用宗教破坏民族团结、分裂国家和进行恐怖活动。 第五条 各宗教坚持独立自主自办的原则,宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所和宗教事务不受外国势力的支配。 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所、宗教教职人员在相互尊重、平等、友好的基础上开展对外交往;其他组织或者个人在对外经济、文化等合作、交流活动中不得接受附加的宗教条件。 第六条 各级人民政府应当加强宗教工作,建立健全宗教工作机制,保障工作力量和必要的工作条件。 县级以上人民政府宗教事务部门依法对涉及国家利益和社会公共利益的宗教事务进行行政管理,县级以上人民政府其他有关部门在各自职责范围内依法负责有关的行政管理工作。 乡级人民政府应当做好本行政区域的宗教事务管理工作。村民委员会、居民委员会应当依法协助人民政府管理宗教事务。 各级人民政府应当听取宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所和信教公民的意见,协调宗教事务管理工作,为宗教团体、宗教院校和宗教活动场所提供公共服务。 第二章 宗教团体 第七条 宗教团体的成立、变更和注销,应当依照国家社会团体管理的有关规定办理登记。 宗教团体章程应当符合国家社会团体管理的有关规定。 宗教团体按照章程开展活动,受法律保护。 第八条 宗教团体具有下列职能: (一)协助人民政府贯彻落实法律、法规、规章和政策,维护信教公民的合法权益; (二)指导宗教教务,制定规章制度并督促落实; (三)从事宗教文化研究,阐释宗教教义教规,开展宗教思想建设; (四)开展宗教教育培训,培养宗教教职人员,认定、管理宗教教职人员; (五)法律、法规、规章和宗教团体章程规定的其他职能。 第九条 全国性宗教团体和省、自治区、直辖市宗教团体可以根据本宗教的需要按照规定选派和接收宗教留学人员,其他任何组织或者个人不得选派和接收宗教留学人员。 第十条 宗教院校、宗教活动场所和宗教教职人员应当遵守宗教团体制定的规章制度。 第三章 宗教院校 第十一条 宗教院校由全国性宗教团体或者省、自治区、直辖市宗教团体设立。其他任何组织或者个人不得设立宗教院校。 第十二条 设立宗教院校,应当由全国性宗教团体向国务院宗教事务部门提出申请,或者由省、自治区、直辖市宗教团体向拟设立的宗教院校所在地的省、自治区、直辖市人民政府宗教事务部门提出申请。省、自治区、直辖市人民政府宗教事务部门应当自收到申请之日起30日内提出意见,报国务院宗教事务部门审批。 国务院宗教事务部门应当自收到全国性宗教团体的申请或者省、自治区、直辖市人民政府宗教事务部门报送的材料之日起60日内,作出批准或者不予批准的决定。 第十三条 设立宗教院校,应当具备下列条件: (一)有明确的培养目标、办学章程和课程设置计划; (二)有符合培养条件的生源; (三)有必要的办学资金和稳定的经费来源; (四)有教学任务和办学规模所必需的教学场所、设施设备; (五)有专职的院校负责人、合格的专职教师和内部管理组织; (六)布局合理。 第十四条 经批准设立的宗教院校,可以按照有关规定申请法人登记。 第十五条 宗教院校变更校址、校名、隶属关系、培养目标、学制、办学规模等以及合并、分设和终止,应当按照本条例第十二条规定的程序办理。 第十六条 宗教院校实行特定的教师资格认定、职称评审聘任和学生学位授予制度,具体办法由国务院宗教事务部门另行制定。 第十七条 宗教院校聘用外籍专业人员,应当经国务院宗教事务部门同意后,到所在地外国人工作管理部门办理相关手续。 第十八条 宗教团体和寺院、宫观、清真寺、教堂(以下称寺观教堂)开展培养宗教教职人员、学习时间在3个月以上的宗教教育培训,应当报设区的市级以上地方人民政府宗教事务部门审批。 第四章 宗教活动场所 第十九条 宗教活动场所包括寺观教堂和其他固定宗教活动处所。 寺观教堂和其他固定宗教活动处所的区分标准由省、自治区、直辖市人民政府宗教事务部门制定,报国务院宗教事务部门备案。 第二十条 设立宗教活动场所,应当具备下列条件: (一)设立宗旨不违背本条例第四条、第五条的规定; (二)当地信教公民有经常进行集体宗教活动的需要; (三)有拟主持宗教活动的宗教教职人员或者符合本宗教规定的其他人员; (四)有必要的资金,资金来源渠道合法; (五)布局合理,符合城乡规划要求,不妨碍周围单位和居民的正常生产、生活。 第二十一条 筹备设立宗教活动场所,由宗教团体向拟设立的宗教活动场所所在地的县级人民政府宗教事务部门提出申请。县级人民政府宗教事务部门应当自收到申请之日起30日内提出审核意见,报设区的市级人民政府宗教事务部门。 设区的市级人民政府宗教事务部门应当自收到县级人民政府宗教事务部门报送的材料之日起30日内,对申请设立其他固定宗教活动处所的,作出批准或者不予批准的决定;对申请设立寺观教堂的,提出审核意见,报省、自治区、直辖市人民政府宗教事务部门审批。 省、自治区、直辖市人民政府宗教事务部门应当自收到设区的市级人民政府宗教事务部门报送的材料之日起30日内,作出批准或者不予批准的决定。 宗教活动场所的设立申请获批准后,方可办理该宗教活动场所的筹建事项。 第二十二条 宗教活动场所经批准筹备并建设完工后,应当向所在地的县级人民政府宗教事务部门申请登记。县级人民政府宗教事务部门应当自收到申请之日起30日内对该宗教活动场所的管理组织、规章制度建设等情况进行审核,对符合条件的予以登记,发给《宗教活动场所登记证》。 第二十三条 宗教活动场所符合法人条件的,经所在地宗教团体同意,并报县级人民政府宗教事务部门审查同意后,可以到民政部门办理法人登记。 第二十四条 宗教活动场所终止或者变更登记内容的,应当到原登记管理机关办理相应的注销或者变更登记手续。 第二十五条 宗教活动场所应当成立管理组织,实行民主管理。宗教活动场所管理组织的成员,经民主协商推选,并报该场所的登记管理机关备案。 第二十六条 宗教活动场所应当加强内部管理,依照有关法律、法规、规章的规定,建立健全人员、财务、资产、会计、治安、消防、文物保护、卫生防疫等管理制度,接受当地人民政府有关部门的指导、监督、检查。 第二十七条 宗教事务部门应当对宗教活动场所遵守法律、法规、规章情况,建立和执行场所管理制度情况,登记项目变更情况,以及宗教活动和涉外活动情况进行监督检查。宗教活动场所应当接受宗教事务部门的监督检查。 第二十八条 宗教活动场所内可以经销宗教用品、宗教艺术品和宗教出版物。 第二十九条 宗教活动场所应当防范本场所内发生重大事故或者发生违犯宗教禁忌等伤害信教公民宗教感情、破坏民族团结、影响社会稳定的事件。 发生前款所列事故或者事件时,宗教活动场所应当立即报告所在地的县级人民政府宗教事务部门。 第三十条 宗教团体、寺观教堂拟在寺观教堂内修建大型露天宗教造像,应当由省、自治区、直辖市宗教团体向省、自治区、直辖市人民政府宗教事务部门提出申请。省、自治区、直辖市人民政府宗教事务部门应当自收到申请之日起30日内提出意见,报国务院宗教事务部门审批。 国务院宗教事务部门应当自收到修建大型露天宗教造像报告之日起60日内,作出批准或者不予批准的决定。 宗教团体、寺观教堂以外的组织以及个人不得修建大型露天宗教造像。 禁止在寺观教堂外修建大型露天宗教造像。 第三十一条 有关单位和个人在宗教活动场所内设立商业服务网点、举办陈列展览、拍摄电影电视片和开展其他活动,应当事先征得该宗教活动场所同意。 第三十二条 地方各级人民政府应当根据实际需要,将宗教活动场所建设纳入土地利用总体规划和城乡规划。 宗教活动场所、大型露天宗教造像的建设应当符合土地利用总体规划、城乡规划和工程建设、文物保护等有关法律、法规。 第三十三条 在宗教活动场所内改建或者新建建筑物,应当经所在地县级以上地方人民政府宗教事务部门批准后,依法办理规划、建设等手续。 宗教活动场所扩建、异地重建的,应当按照本条例第二十一条规定的程序办理。 第三十四条 景区内有宗教活动场所的,其所在地的县级以上地方人民政府应当协调、处理宗教活动场所与景区管理组织及园林、林业、文物、旅游等方面的利益关系,维护宗教活动场所、宗教教职人员和信教公民的合法权益,保护正常的宗教活动。 以宗教活动场所为主要游览内容的景区的规划建设,应当与宗教活动场所的风格、环境相协调。 第三十五条 信教公民有进行经常性集体宗教活动需要,尚不具备条件申请设立宗教活动场所的,由信教公民代表向县级人民政府宗教事务部门提出申请,县级人民政府宗教事务部门征求所在地宗教团体和乡级人民政府意见后,可以为其指定临时活动地点。 在县级人民政府宗教事务部门指导下,所在地乡级人民政府对临时活动地点的活动进行监管。具备设立宗教活动场所条件后,办理宗教活动场所设立审批和登记手续。 临时活动地点的宗教活动应当符合本条例的相关规定。 第五章 宗教教职人员 第三十六条 宗教教职人员经宗教团体认定,报县级以上人民政府宗教事务部门备案,可以从事宗教教务活动。 藏传佛教活佛传承继位,在佛教团体的指导下,依照宗教仪轨和历史定制办理,报省级以上人民政府宗教事务部门或者省级以上人民政府批准。天主教的主教由天主教的全国性宗教团体报国务院宗教事务部门备案。 未取得或者已丧失宗教教职人员资格的,不得以宗教教职人员的身份从事活动。 第三十七条 宗教教职人员担任或者离任宗教活动场所主要教职,经本宗教的宗教团体同意后,报县级以上人民政府宗教事务部门备案。 第三十八条 宗教教职人员主持宗教活动、举行宗教仪式、从事宗教典籍整理、进行宗教文化研究、开展公益慈善等活动,受法律保护。 第三十九条 宗教教职人员依法参加社会保障并享有相关权利。宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所应当按照规定为宗教教职人员办理社会保险登记。 第六章 宗教活动 第四十条 信教公民的集体宗教活动,一般应当在宗教活动场所内举行,由宗教活动场所、宗教团体或者宗教院校组织,由宗教教职人员或者符合本宗教规定的其他人员主持,按照教义教规进行。 第四十一条 非宗教团体、非宗教院校、非宗教活动场所、非指定的临时活动地点不得组织、举行宗教活动,不得接受宗教性的捐赠。 非宗教团体、非宗教院校、非宗教活动场所不得开展宗教教育培训,不得组织公民出境参加宗教方面的培训、会议、活动等。 第四十二条 跨省、自治区、直辖市举行超过宗教活动场所容纳规模的大型宗教活动,或者在宗教活动场所外举行大型宗教活动,应当由主办的宗教团体、寺观教堂在拟举行日的30日前,向大型宗教活动举办地的设区的市级人民政府宗教事务部门提出申请。设区的市级人民政府宗教事务部门应当自受理之日起15日内,在征求本级人民政府公安机关意见后,作出批准或者不予批准的决定。作出批准决定的,由批准机关向省级人民政府宗教事务部门备案。 大型宗教活动应当按照批准通知书载明的要求依宗教仪轨进行,不得违反本条例第四条、第五条的有关规定。主办的宗教团体、寺观教堂应当采取有效措施防止意外事故的发生,保证大型宗教活动安全、有序进行。大型宗教活动举办地的乡级人民政府和县级以上地方人民政府有关部门应当依据各自职责实施必要的管理和指导。 第四十三条 信仰伊斯兰教的中国公民前往国外朝觐,由伊斯兰教全国性宗教团体负责组织。 第四十四条 禁止在宗教院校以外的学校及其他教育机构传教、举行宗教活动、成立宗教组织、设立宗教活动场所。 第四十五条 宗教团体、宗教院校和寺观教堂按照国家有关规定可以编印、发送宗教内部资料性出版物。出版公开发行的宗教出版物,按照国家出版管理的规定办理。 涉及宗教内容的出版物,应当符合国家出版管理的规定,并不得含有下列内容: (一)破坏信教公民与不信教公民和睦相处的; (二)破坏不同宗教之间和睦以及宗教内部和睦的; (三)歧视、侮辱信教公民或者不信教公民的; (四)宣扬宗教极端主义的; (五)违背宗教的独立自主自办原则的。 第四十六条 超出个人自用、合理数量的宗教类出版物及印刷品进境,或者以其他方式进口宗教类出版物及印刷品,应当按照国家有关规定办理。 第四十七条 从事互联网宗教信息服务,应当经省级以上人民政府宗教事务部门审核同意后,按照国家互联网信息服务管理有关规定办理。 第四十八条 互联网宗教信息服务的内容应当符合有关法律、法规、规章和宗教事务管理的相关规定。 互联网宗教信息服务的内容,不得违反本条例第四十五条第二款的规定。 第七章 宗教财产 第四十九条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所对依法占有的属于国家、集体所有的财产,依照法律和国家有关规定管理和使用;对其他合法财产,依法享有所有权或者其他财产权利。 第五十条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所合法使用的土地,合法所有或者使用的房屋、构筑物、设施,以及其他合法财产、收益,受法律保护。 任何组织或者个人不得侵占、哄抢、私分、损毁或者非法查封、扣押、冻结、没收、处分宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所的合法财产,不得损毁宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所占有、使用的文物。 第五十一条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所所有的房屋和使用的土地等不动产,应当依法向县级以上地方人民政府不动产登记机构申请不动产登记,领取不动产权证书;产权变更、转移的,应当及时办理变更、转移登记。 涉及宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所土地使用权变更或者转移时,不动产登记机构应当征求本级人民政府宗教事务部门的意见。 第五十二条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所是非营利性组织,其财产和收入应当用于与其宗旨相符的活动以及公益慈善事业,不得用于分配。 第五十三条 任何组织或者个人捐资修建宗教活动场所,不享有该宗教活动场所的所有权、使用权,不得从该宗教活动场所获得经济收益。 禁止投资、承包经营宗教活动场所或者大型露天宗教造像,禁止以宗教名义进行商业宣传。 第五十四条 宗教活动场所用于宗教活动的房屋、构筑物及其附属的宗教教职人员生活用房不得转让、抵押或者作为实物投资。 第五十五条 为了公共利益需要,征收宗教团体、宗教院校或者宗教活动场所房屋的,应当按照国家房屋征收的有关规定执行。宗教团体、宗教院校或者宗教活动场所可以选择货币补偿,也可以选择房屋产权调换或者重建。 第五十六条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所、宗教教职人员可以依法兴办公益慈善事业。 任何组织或者个人不得利用公益慈善活动传教。 第五十七条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所可以按照国家有关规定接受境内外组织和个人的捐赠,用于与其宗旨相符的活动。 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所不得接受境外组织和个人附带条件的捐赠,接受捐赠金额超过10万元的,应当报县级以上人民政府宗教事务部门审批。 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所可以按照宗教习惯接受公民的捐赠,但不得强迫或者摊派。 第五十八条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所应当执行国家统一的财务、资产、会计制度,向所在地的县级以上人民政府宗教事务部门报告财务状况、收支情况和接受、使用捐赠情况,接受其监督管理,并以适当方式向信教公民公布。宗教事务部门应当与有关部门共享相关管理信息。 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所应当按照国家有关财务、会计制度,建立健全会计核算、财务报告、财务公开等制度,建立健全财务管理机构,配备必要的财务会计人员,加强财务管理。 政府有关部门可以组织对宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所进行财务、资产检查和审计。 第五十九条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所应当依法办理税务登记。 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所和宗教教职人员应当依法办理纳税申报,按照国家有关规定享受税收优惠。 税务部门应当依法对宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所和宗教教职人员实施税收管理。 第六十条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所注销或者终止的,应当进行财产清算,清算后的剩余财产应当用于与其宗旨相符的事业。 第八章 法律责任 第六十一条 国家工作人员在宗教事务管理工作中滥用职权、玩忽职守、徇私舞弊,应当给予处分的,依法给予处分;构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任。 第六十二条 强制公民信仰宗教或者不信仰宗教,或者干扰宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所正常的宗教活动的,由宗教事务部门责令改正;有违反治安管理行为的,依法给予治安管理处罚。 侵犯宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所和信教公民合法权益的,依法承担民事责任;构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任。 第六十三条 宣扬、支持、资助宗教极端主义,或者利用宗教进行危害国家安全、公共安全,破坏民族团结、分裂国家和恐怖活动,侵犯公民人身权利、民主权利,妨害社会管理秩序,侵犯公私财产等违法活动,构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任;尚不构成犯罪的,由有关部门依法给予行政处罚;对公民、法人或者其他组织造成损失的,依法承担民事责任。 宗教团体、宗教院校或者宗教活动场所有前款行为,情节严重的,有关部门应当采取必要的措施对其进行整顿,拒不接受整顿的,由登记管理机关或者批准设立机关依法吊销其登记证书或者设立许可。 第六十四条 大型宗教活动过程中发生危害国家安全、公共安全或者严重破坏社会秩序情况的,由有关部门依照法律、法规进行处置和处罚;主办的宗教团体、寺观教堂负有责任的,由登记管理机关责令其撤换主要负责人,情节严重的,由登记管理机关吊销其登记证书。 擅自举行大型宗教活动的,由宗教事务部门会同有关部门责令停止活动,可以并处10万元以上30万元以下的罚款;有违法所得、非法财物的,没收违法所得和非法财物。其中,大型宗教活动是宗教团体、宗教活动场所擅自举办的,登记管理机关还可以责令该宗教团体、宗教活动场所撤换直接负责的主管人员。 第六十五条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所有下列行为之一的,由宗教事务部门责令改正;情节较重的,由登记管理机关或者批准设立机关责令该宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所撤换直接负责的主管人员;情节严重的,由登记管理机关或者批准设立机关责令停止日常活动,改组管理组织,限期整改,拒不整改的,依法吊销其登记证书或者设立许可;有违法所得、非法财物的,予以没收: (一)未按规定办理变更登记或者备案手续的; (二)宗教院校违反培养目标、办学章程和课程设置要求的; (三)宗教活动场所违反本条例第二十六条规定,未建立有关管理制度或者管理制度不符合要求的; (四)宗教活动场所违反本条例第五十四条规定,将用于宗教活动的房屋、构筑物及其附属的宗教教职人员生活用房转让、抵押或者作为实物投资的; (五)宗教活动场所内发生重大事故、重大事件未及时报告,造成严重后果的; (六)违反本条例第五条规定,违背宗教的独立自主自办原则的; (七)违反国家有关规定接受境内外捐赠的; (八)拒不接受行政管理机关依法实施的监督管理的。 第六十六条 临时活动地点的活动违反本条例相关规定的,由宗教事务部门责令改正;情节严重的,责令停止活动,撤销该临时活动地点;有违法所得、非法财物的,予以没收。 第六十七条 宗教团体、宗教院校、宗教活动场所违反国家有关财务、会计、资产、税收管理规定的,由财政、税务等部门依据相关规定进行处罚;情节严重的,经财政、税务部门提出,由登记管理机关或者批准设立机关吊销其登记证书或者设立许可。 第六十八条 涉及宗教内容的出版物或者互联网宗教信息服务有本条例第四十五条第二款禁止内容的,由有关部门对相关责任单位及人员依法给予行政处罚;构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任。 擅自从事互联网宗教信息服务或者超出批准或备案项目提供服务的,由有关部门根据相关法律、法规处理。 第六十九条 擅自设立宗教活动场所的,宗教活动场所已被撤销登记或者吊销登记证书仍然进行宗教活动的,或者擅自设立宗教院校的,由宗教事务部门会同有关部门予以取缔,有违法所得、非法财物的,没收违法所得和非法财物,违法所得无法确定的,处5万元以下的罚款;有违法房屋、构筑物的,由规划、建设等部门依法处理;有违反治安管理行为的,依法给予治安管理处罚。 非宗教团体、非宗教院校、非宗教活动场所、非指定的临时活动地点组织、举行宗教活动,接受宗教性捐赠的,由宗教事务部门会同公安、民政、建设、教育、文化、旅游、文物等有关部门责令停止活动;有违法所得、非法财物的,没收违法所得和非法财物,可以并处违法所得1倍以上3倍以下的罚款;违法所得无法确定的,处5万元以下的罚款;构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任。 第七十条 擅自组织公民出境参加宗教方面的培训、会议、朝觐等活动的,或者擅自开展宗教教育培训的,由宗教事务部门会同有关部门责令停止活动,可以并处2万元以上20万元以下的罚款;有违法所得的,没收违法所得;构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任。 在宗教院校以外的学校及其他教育机构传教、举行宗教活动、成立宗教组织、设立宗教活动场所的,由其审批机关或者其他有关部门责令限期改正并予以警告;有违法所得的,没收违法所得;情节严重的,责令停止招生、吊销办学许可;构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任。 第七十一条 为违法宗教活动提供条件的,由宗教事务部门给予警告,有违法所得、非法财物的,没收违法所得和非法财物,情节严重的,并处2万元以上20万元以下的罚款;有违法房屋、构筑物的,由规划、建设等部门依法处理;有违反治安管理行为的,依法给予治安管理处罚。 第七十二条 违反本条例规定修建大型露天宗教造像的,由宗教事务部门会同国土、规划、建设、旅游等部门责令停止施工,限期拆除,有违法所得的,没收违法所得;情节严重的,并处造像建设工程造价百分之五以上百分之十以下的罚款。 投资、承包经营宗教活动场所或者大型露天宗教造像的,由宗教事务部门会同工商、规划、建设等部门责令改正,并没收违法所得;情节严重的,由登记管理机关吊销该宗教活动场所的登记证书,并依法追究相关人员的责任。 第七十三条 宗教教职人员有下列行为之一的,由宗教事务部门给予警告,没收违法所得和非法财物;情节严重的,由宗教事务部门建议有关宗教团体、宗教院校或者宗教活动场所暂停其主持教务活动或者取消其宗教教职人员身份,并追究有关宗教团体、宗教院校或者宗教活动场所负责人的责任;有违反治安管理行为的,依法给予治安管理处罚;构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任: (一)宣扬、支持、资助宗教极端主义,破坏民族团结、分裂国家和进行恐怖活动或者参与相关活动的; (二)受境外势力支配,擅自接受境外宗教团体或者机构委任教职,以及其他违背宗教的独立自主自办原则的; (三)违反国家有关规定接受境内外捐赠的; (四)组织、主持未经批准的在宗教活动场所外举行的宗教活动的; (五)其他违反法律、法规、规章的行为。 第七十四条 假冒宗教教职人员进行宗教活动或者骗取钱财等违法活动的,由宗教事务部门责令停止活动;有违法所得、非法财物的,没收违法所得和非法财物,并处1万元以下的罚款;有违反治安管理行为的,依法给予治安管理处罚;构成犯罪的,依法追究刑事责任。 第七十五条 对宗教事务部门的行政行为不服的,可以依法申请行政复议;对行政复议决定不服的,可以依法提起行政诉讼。 第九章 附 则 第七十六条 内地与香港特别行政区、澳门特别行政区和台湾地区进行宗教交往,按照法律、行政法规和国家有关规定办理。 第七十七条 本条例自2018年2月1日起施行。 source: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2017-09/07/content_5223282.htm |
AuthorTHERESA MARIE MOREAU is an award-winning reporter who covers Catholicism and Communism. Archives
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