Tianjin (AsiaNews) A group of priests and nuns from the dioceses of Taiyian and Yuci are still hold up in a building seized by the government and which they claim should be returned to the Church. Because of their action, the clergymen and women were beaten up by so-called hooligans.
The building the priests and nuns are occupying has no electricity or water. There are however police cars outside and officers repeatedly ordering them to leave.
Located on Tianjin's Jimbu Road, the building belonged to the aforementioned dioceses but was seized under Mao.
In 1993, the government promised to return it but has failed to do so. Instead, it has started renovating it with the intention of turning it into a luxury apartment complex to rent or sell, keeping all the revenues.
The group of refuseniks is made up of five priests, two nuns and four deacons. They arrived on December 15 as part of a larger group of 50 religieux that included lay people as well. The rest of the group went back to Taiyuan, but are ready to come back if the government does not hand back the building to the Church.
A Tianjin official announced yesterday that the municipality was going to stop renovation work. The priests demanded that the decision be announced on its web but so far to no avail.
Current developments come after on December 16 so-called hooligans stormed the building beating priests, deacons and a nun, some to a pulp, using steel bars, bricks and sticks.
When the police arrived on the scene it let the hooligans go but took the injured to the main police station for interrogation instead of the hospital.
Only hours and many appeals later were the wounded taken to a hospital for treatment.
Only Song Yijing, the single woman among those injured, is still hospitalised.
Doctors think she might be released on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.