Accident or Assassination? Priest and Six Seminarians of Underground Church Killed

Edit: this occurred earlier this month. More recently, Beijing has confirmed the arrest of Christian dissident Gao Zhinsheng.

China's President Hu Jintao, has also been railing against the threats of Westernization in the country.


(Peking) In the Chinese province of Hebei six seminarians and a Catholic priest lost their lives in a traffic accident. On the 11th of December the vehicle with the seven was rammed head on by a truck, as was first reported.

Father Joseph Shi Liming 39 years old, Prefect of the Seminary of the the Underground Church of Baoding, drove the car, and six seminarians, who were found with him in the small bus, were all killed in the collision. They were Joseph Yang, Joseph Bai, John Gong, Paul Li, John Wang. One seminarian, Gabriel Gao is the only one surviving, as he was hurled from the vehicle. He is still wavering close to death, but should, according to reports on local blogs, awake from his coma where he is still in the hospital of Shijiazhuang.

In the underground Church there are suggestions that this was a hit by State Security Services. According to Asianews their collected information, however, points to a car accident.

The Diocese of Baoding is among the most oppressed by the Communist regime of the Peoples Republic of China.

The Catholic internet site Tianzhujiao zai xian (The Catholic Church in the Web) called for special prayers for the deceased members of the underground Church on the Feast of St. Silvester.


Link to Katholisches...

Text: Asianews/Giuseppe Nardi Bild: Asianews

There was also a prayer service for these men at a local Catholic Chinese site, translated from google thanks to a commenter on cathinfo.com:

Catholic News 31 December 2011
On the way to a mass to commemorate the Chinese church [the real one] and to mark the end of 2011, a priest and a religious were killed in a car accident.

We suggest the following:

1. We invite all priests and religious inside and outside of China to have a memorial service for the victims. Please invite the faithful to come to Holy Mass. (At Holy Mass, the priest can mention the stories of the religious and Fr. Joseph)

2. At the parishes of the deceased religious, please pray the Divine Mercy chaplet, and the Holy Rosary.

3. Attend Holy Mass in honor of their sacrifice.

4. Pray to God that He will comfort all their loved ones and families.

5. Do works of mercy, fast, charitable works, or any other mortification.

6. At 10:00 on the 31 of December, a minute of silence for them, and afterwards, prayers for the deceased.

Prayers for the departed

Lord God, we pray that out of your great compassion, have mercy on the souls of Joseph and all the religious  that have passed in peace and light into your house to enter into the ranks of host. Lord you have eternal love for us; you have allowed the shadow of death to blot out the spring of their lives. We pray to you amidst these bitter sufferings, that you will give them the strength to endure the sorrows of this life. At the same time, we pray that through the death of Jesus Christ who died and rose again, that we will ever follow him through this earthly pilgrimage that in the future we may be reunited with our brothers in heaven to partake in eternal felicity. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The names of the victims:

Joseph Shi, priest
Joseph Yang, religious
Joseph Han, religious
Joseph Bai, religious
John Gong, religious
Paul Li, religious
John Wang, religious