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Thousands mourn Shanghai's 'underground' bishop

Posted: 22 Mar 2014 05:18 PM PDT

Shanghai (AFP) - Thousands of mourners packed a Shanghai square Saturday to bid farewell to "underground" Catholic Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang, whose faith led him to endure decades of suffering at the hands of China's ruling Communist Party, they said.

Fan, who was imprisoned for much of the last two decades and spent his final years under house arrest, died last Sunday at the age of 97 after several days of high fever, according to the US-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, a Roman Catholic organisation.

China has a state-controlled Catholic Church, which rejects the Vatican's authority, as well as an "underground" church. Experts estimate that there are as many as 12 million Catholics in China, split roughly evenly between the two churches.

"I came here to bid farewell to our bishop," said a woman in her 60s who gave her name only as Clare and who was among a throng of mourners gathered outside the funeral home where Fan's body was laid out.

"He had kept loyal to the Lord throughout his life and endured great suffering. I have great respect for him," she said of Fan, who was appointed bishop of Shanghai in 2000 by Pope John Paul II.

In the square outside the funeral home, a large screen displayed photos of Fan while mourners sang, prayed and listened to a man narrating the bishop's life story.

As the service got underway, it relayed scenes from inside the funeral home: Fan's body was laid out in the centre, flanked by mourners and clergy in red-and-white robes. A large photo of Fan adorned the hall, surrounded by flowers.

Chinese authorities had turned down a request from worshippers to hold Fan's funeral service at Shanghai's main Catholic cathedral, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said.

- 'Forbidden' from pastoral duty -

Fan was ordained a priest in 1951 and spent more than two decades in jail and labour camps. His appointment as bishop of Shanghai in 2000 was rejected by China's state-run church.

"Bishop Fan was forbidden to carry out his pastoral duty as the government put him under house arrest almost immediately -- a sentence that he served until the day he died," Joseph Kung, president of the foundation, wrote in a statement.

China's Communist regime broke ties with the Vatican in 1951, and although relations have improved in recent years as the country's Catholic population has grown, they remain at odds over which side has the authority to ordain priests.

Shanghai is considered an important diocese given the city's historical ties to the Catholic Church -- it was home to Xu Guangqi, one of the most prominent converts secured by 16th-century Italian missionary Matteo Ricci.

The long-serving bishop of Shanghai's state-run Catholic Church, Aloysius Jin Luxian, died last year at age 96.

Father Giuseppe Zhu Yude, a priest from the underground church, led the mass for Fan's funeral on Saturday.

Overseas and underground Chinese Catholics had requested that Jin's successor, Thaddeus Ma Daqin, be allowed to preside.

But that request was apparently rebuffed. According to the Vatican-linked AsiaNews website, Ma -- who was stripped of his title after he dramatically split with China's state-run church at his installation ceremony last July and has since been under house arrest -- remained under close watch by authorities.

Members of both the state-controlled and underground churches were in attendance at Fan's funeral, and some expressed concern about the uncertainty the church in Shanghai now faces.

"Bishop Fan had held onto his faith during the darkest times," said a middle-aged woman named Grace. "I believe as long as we follow his example, the Lord will bless the Shanghai diocese and we will have new leadership."

India's new breed of politicians

Posted: 22 Mar 2014 09:00 AM PDT

As India heads towards general elections, candidates with no political background will throw down the most serious challenge yet to the establishment.

IN Indian politics, as is generally the way of the world, old men died and the young filled their places. But the typical politician has not changed beyond recognition over the decades. He is still mostly a he; a relic and beneficiary of village values even when he lives in the heart of a city, who correctly identifies modernity as his archenemy; a practical man of ordinary intellect who is perceived to be corrupt, even dangerous.

Until recently, the young who were heralded as the "new breed" of politicians tended to be merely the progeny of this typical politician. They were not very different from their papas.

They just wore the skin of an easily procured Western education and all its masquerades. It was as if the typical Indian politician were a species so suited to the terrain where it foraged that it did not have to evolve.

But then circumstances forced the voters to evolve and from them have risen the mutants – engineers, activists, corporate executives, journalists, former government officers and at least one actress – who have become politicians out of necessity. Naïve and upright, they view politics as a transformational public service. It is not the first time that Indians infected with idealism have entered politics. But now, as the great republic heads toward general elections, they will throw down the most serious challenge yet to the old.

"What has happened is that the pool of hyper-aspirational youth has become very, very large, and they want Indian politics to change," said Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of the software firm Infosys and until recently the bureaucrat at the helm of India's attempt to give every citizen a unique biometric identity.

Nilekani is running for office for the first time, and his declaration of assets to the Election Commission will affirm the known fact that he is a billionaire and the richest candidate in the fray among those whose wealth can be measured.

Most of those who are debuting in electoral politics are drawn to the Aam Aadmi Party, a new outfit born out of public rage against the typical politician.

Nilekani is an anomaly because he has joined the governing Indian National Congress.

The significance of the vast pool of hopeful, educated young people that Nilekani was referring to is that they do not have the means to escape to the West and so are deeply invested in the fate of the nation. The idea of home as the only refuge, which is often expressed as nationalistic awakening, is the fundamental force behind the heightened interest in politics today not only among the young, but also the many layers of the middle class.

In November 2008, after 10 terrorists attacked Mumbai, the urban disquiet over the state of the nation erupted in the form of street processions and passionate television shows that abused the political class so severely that politicians threatened to censor television news in the interest of national security.

Meera Sanyal, a banker whose friend died in the terrorist attack as he was dining in a hotel, was inspired by the public rage against politicians to run in the 2009 general elections as an independent candidate from the high-profile Mumbai South constituency.

She fared very poorly. She is running again now, and this time, she told me, "There is a sea change in the voters."

In 2009, she said: "People thought I was crazy. Friends said politics was dirty business and there was no place in it for someone like me. But now, the idea that a person with no political background should enter politics has become mainstream."

This is a consequence of the extraordinary impact of the Aam Aadmi Party, which she has joined.

"It is a magnet for people with no political background who want to enter politics," she said.

The Aam Aadmi Party believes it is a sudden force of nature that can make the typical Indian politician extinct.

> Manu Joseph is author of the novel 'The Illicit Happiness of Other People'.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 23 Mac 2014

The Star Online: Metro: Central

The Star Online: Metro: Central

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