ROME, AUG. 2, 2001 (ZENIT.org–Fides).- Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu, who was arrested by Chinese police in January 2000, was released last month in very poor health, the Vatican agency Fides reported.
Bishop Zhang, 45, is the unofficial, Rome-backed bishop of Xinxiang in Henan, in central China. As a member of the underground Church loyal to Rome, he repeatedly has been arrested and held incommunicado.
The government regularly harasses members of the underground Church to persuade them to join the state-approved «patriotic» Church.
Bishop Zhang´s diocese, 600 kilometers (372 miles) south of Beijing, has about 8,000 Catholics, of both the official and unofficial Churches. China as a whole has about 11 million Catholics.
