Gentle Cleric's Stature Grows as He Risks Ire of China
By Keith Bradsher | The New York Times
"The Saturday Profile"
July 08, 2006
HONG KONG
MASS had scarcely ended on June 4 when a gaggle of young women flocked to the front of the cathedral. Groups of them took turns having their photos taken with the thin, silver-haired 74-year-old who so captured their fancy: Cardinal Joseph Zen Zi-kiun.
He smiled gently for the photos, then walked across an alley to an indoor basketball court with a concrete floor and rusty fans on the walls that barely stirred the warm, humid air. After a youth group had sung religious songs, and after a slide show depicting the Chinese military crackdown in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, he read a strongly worded message calling for residents of Hong Kong to remember their countrymen elsewhere in China.
"The young people who fought and died for democracy in Tiananmen Square were their brothers and sisters," he said in the speech. "After June 4, we can no longer fight selfishly just to win the most rights for Hong Kong."
With his charisma, erudition and dedication to human rights, Cardinal Zen has become a celebrity here, a man wielding considerable political influence as well as religious power. But his high profile and growing influence have antagonized senior officials in mainland China, particularly those who oversee the state-controlled church.
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Before moving to Shanghai a few months ago I had heard that people were free to go to churches and temples etc so I've been surprised to what extent the government controls and interferes in these institutions. For example, only foreign passport holders are allowed to go to the one legal int'l Protestant church in Shanghai. The gov't even limits who can preach at the church.