Chinese Bishop Giulio Jia Zhiguo, who was arrested last year after holding a meeting on the state of the Roman Catholic Church in China, has been released, the Vatican announced Thursday.The 75-year-old bishop of Zhengding, in northern China's Hebei province, "was freed yesterday" (Wednesday), Radio Vatican said.
The Vatican had called Jia's arrest on March 31, 2009 "an obstacle to dialogue" and noted that other clergymen were also being held or put under pressure because of their religious activities.
A Vatican committee of Church officials and representatives of Chinese bishops which discussed Church life in communist China as he was being arrested found that "problems are not only due to difficulties inside the Church but also to the tense relationship with civilian authorities".....
The arrest was not Jia's first and came following a previous detention on August 24, 2008, the closing day of the Olympic Games in Beijing. He has now been detained 13 times by police since 2004.
The prelate advocates the rights of people with disabilities.
Rights groups say those who remain loyal to the Vatican often suffer persecution, with detentions of bishops common.
In September 2008, an elderly Chinese Catholic bishop who spent almost half his life in detention died while serving his latest prison term in Hebei.
China counts several million Catholics -- comprised of members of an official Church with links to Chinese political authorities and an unofficial "clandestine" Church that says it derives its legitimacy from the pope.
What could we learn from a country that arrests men of the cloth, particularly men who help the disabled?
In Sheba's pediatric hemato-oncology department was Mohammed Abu Mustafa, a four-and-a-half-month-old Palestinian infant. Protruding from his tiny body were pipes attached to big machines. His breathing was labored.
"His days may be numbered. He is suffering from a genetic defect that is causing the failure of his immune system," said the baby's mother, Raida, from the Gaza Strip, when she emerged from the isolation room. "I had two daughters in Gaza," she continued, her black eyes shimmering. "Both died because of immune deficiency. In Gaza I was told all the time that there is no treatment for this and that he is doomed to die. The problem now is how to pay for the [bone marrow] transplant. There is no funding."
"I got to her after all the attempts to find a donation for the transplant had failed," [Eldar] relates. "I understood that I was the baby's last hope, but I didn't give it much of a chance. At the time, Qassam rockets falling on Sderot opened every newscast. In that situation, I didn't believe that anyone would be willing to give a shekel for a Palestinian infant."
He was wrong. Hours after the news item about Mohammed was broadcast, the hospital switchboard was jammed with callers. An Israeli Jew whose son died during his military service donated $55,000, and for the first time the Abu Mustafa family began to feel hopeful. Only then did Eldar grasp the full dramatic potential of the story. He told his editor, Tali Ben Ovadia, that he wanted to continue accompanying the family.
...Nevertheless, this idyllic situation developed into a deep crisis that led to the severance of the relations and what appeared to be the end of the filming. From an innocent conversation about religious holidays, Raida Abu Mustafa launched into a painful monologue about the culture of the shahids - the martyrs - and admitted, during the complex transplant process, that she would like to see her son perpetrate a suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem is ours," she declared. "We are all for Jerusalem, the whole nation, not just a million, all of us. Do you understand what that means - all of us?"
She also explained to Eldar exactly what she had in mind. "For us, death is a natural thing. We are not frightened of death. From the smallest infant, even smaller than Mohammed, to the oldest person, we will all sacrifice ourselves for the sake of Jerusalem. We feel we have the right to it. You're free to be angry, so be angry."
And Eldar was angry. "Then why are you fighting to save your son's life, if you say that death is a usual thing for your people?" he lashes out in one of the most dramatic moments in the film.
"It is a regular thing," she smiles at him. "Life is not precious. Life is precious, but not for us. For us, life is nothing, not worth a thing. That is why we have so many suicide bombers. They are not afraid of death. None of us, not even the children, are afraid of death. It is natural for us. After Mohammed gets well, I will certainly want him to be a shahid. If it's for Jerusalem, then there's no problem. For you it is hard, I know; with us, there are cries of rejoicing and happiness when someone falls as a shahid. For us a shahid is a tremendous thing."
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