HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s outspoken Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen was allowed to leave the southern Chinese city to attend Pope Francis’ funeral in Vatican City.
Zen, a 93-year-old retired bishop, left Hong Kong on Wednesday night after applying at a court to get back his passport, his secretary said in a text message on Thursday. Authorities confiscated his passport after his controversial arrest under a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2022.
Zen is among the critics in recent years who have said the Vatican’s agreement with Chinese authorities on the appointment of bishops betrays pro-Vatican Chinese Catholics. He has also criticized Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the official charged with negotiations with Beijing, as a “man of little faith.”
Parolin is considered one of the main contenders to be the next pope, given his prominence in the Catholic hierarchy.
On Tuesday, media reports said Zen had issued a critique of the Vatican, questioning why pre-conclave meetings started as early as Tuesday. The AP could not independently verify the reports, but Zen reposted the reporters’ posts about his statement on his X account.
His secretary said Zen would return to Hong Kong after the late pope’s funeral, which is scheduled for Saturday. But she was unsure about his exact return date.
It was not the first time Zen had to go through the city’s court to leave Hong Kong. In 2023, he went through similar procedures to pay his respects to the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He met Pope Francis in a private audience during that trip.
Zen was first arrested in 2022 on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces under the security law. His arrest sent shockwaves through the Catholic community at that time.
While Zen has not yet faced national security-related charges, he and five others were fined in 2022 after being found guilty of failing to register a now-defunct fund that aimed to help people arrested in widespread 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. A hearing on his appeal against the conviction is scheduled for December.
Separately, Hong Kong cardinal Stephen Chow will travel to the Vatican for the conclave, the city’s Catholic Social Communications Office said Thursday.
In 2023, a Beijing bishop who was installed by China’s state-controlled Catholic church as an archbishop visited Hong Kong at the invitation of Chow. It was the first-ever official visit by a Beijing bishop to the city. Experts at that time said Chow’s invitation was a symbolic gesture that could strengthen the fragile ties between China and the Vatican.
Beijing and the Vatican severed diplomatic ties following the Chinese Communist Party’s rise to power and the expulsion of foreign priests. Since the break in ties, Catholics in China have been divided between those who belong to an official, state-sanctioned church and those in an underground church loyal to the pope. The Vatican recognizes members of both as Catholics but claims the exclusive right to choose bishops.
Hong Kong allows outspoken Cardinal Joseph Zen to attend Pope Francis’ funeral
https://arab.news/bbuu5
Hong Kong allows outspoken Cardinal Joseph Zen to attend Pope Francis’ funeral
- Zen have said the Vatican’s agreement with Chinese authorities on the appointment of bishops betrays pro-Vatican Chinese Catholics
- He has also criticized Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the official charged with negotiations with Beijing, as a ‘man of little faith’
Bangladesh halts controversial relocation of Rohingya refugees to remote island
- Administration of ousted PM Sheikh Hasina spent about $350m on the project
- Rohingya refuse to move to island and 10,000 have fled, top refugee official says
DHAKA: When Bangladesh launched a multi-million-dollar project to relocate Rohingya refugees to a remote island, it promised a better life. Five years on, the controversial plan has stalled, as authorities find it is unsustainable and refugees flee back to overcrowded mainland camps.
The Bhasan Char island emerged naturally from river sediments some 20 years ago. It lies in the Bay of Bengal, over 60 km from Bangladesh’s mainland.
Never inhabited, the 40 sq. km area was developed to accommodate 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the cramped camps of the coastal Cox’s Bazar district.
Relocation to the island started in early December 2020, despite protests from the UN and humanitarian organizations, which warned that it was vulnerable to cyclones and flooding, and that its isolation restricted access to emergency services.
Over 1,600 people were then moved to Bhasan Char by the Bangladesh Navy, followed by another 1,800 the same month. During 25 such transfers, more than 38,000 refugees were resettled on the island by October 2024.
The relocation project was spearheaded by the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted last year. The new administration has since suspended it indefinitely.
“The Bangladesh government will not conduct any further relocation of the Rohingya to Bhasan Char island. The main reason is that the country’s present government considers the project not viable,” Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News on Sunday.
The government’s decision was prompted by data from UN agencies, which showed that operations on Bhasan Char involved 30 percent higher costs compared with the mainland camps in Cox’s Bazar, Rahman said.
“On the other hand, the Rohingya are not voluntarily coming forward for relocation to the island. Many of those previously relocated have fled ... Around 29,000 are currently living on the island, while about 10,000 have returned to Cox’s Bazar on their own.”
A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s and have faced systemic persecution ever since.
In 2017 alone, some 750,000 of them crossed to neighboring Bangladesh, fleeing a deadly crackdown by Myanmar’s military. Today, about 1.3 million of them shelter in 33 camps in the coastal Cox’s Bazar district, making it the world’s largest refugee settlement.
Bhasan Char, where the Bangladeshi government spent an estimated $350 million to construct concrete residential buildings, cyclone shelters, roads, freshwater systems, and other infrastructure, offered better living conditions than the squalid camps.
But there was no regular transport service to the island, its inhabitants were not allowed to travel freely, and livelihood opportunities were few and dependent on aid coming from the mainland.
Rahman said: “Considering all aspects, we can say that Rohingya relocation to Bhasan Char is currently halted. Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s regime, only one batch of Rohingya was relocated to the island.
“The relocation was conducted with government funding, but the government is no longer allowing any funds for this purpose.”
“The Bangladeshi government has spent around $350 million on it from its own funds ... It seems the project has not turned out to be successful.”
