Chinese church official denies crackdown

[Ian David]

BEIJING --A senior official in China's state-sanctioned Catholic church on Saturday denied his association was cracking down on churches loyal to the Vatican following an unconfirmed media report that nine priests were arrested this week.

AsiaNews, a missionary news service close to the Vatican, reported Friday that nine priests from the underground Catholic "church" in north China's Hebei province were arrested by police Wednesday as they gathered to pray near the city of Baoding.

The report called the alleged arrests part of a campaign by the government-backed Catholic Patriotic Association to subdue the underground church in Hebei, a traditional stronghold of Catholic sentiment in northern China.

AsiaNews said the province has some 1.5 million Catholics, most belonging to the unofficial "church."

Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the association, said he had heard of no such arrests and denied there was a campaign under way to crush the "church", which is loyal to the {Pope Ratso}.

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