Pray for the Persecuted

Twelve "underground" Catholic clerics in China are arrested.

Religious gatherings are banned in China unless held under the auspices of state-approved religious groups. China broke links with the Vatican in the 1950s and has its own Catholic Church, which pledges loyalty to Beijing instead of the pope.

In the pope's most recent list of new cardinals, it was widely assumed that one appointed "in pectore" — without his name being given, for his own protection — was Chinese.