Wenzhou, China, March 23, 2025 | In the quiet coastal city of Wenzhou, known to some as the “Jerusalem of the East,” a storm is brewing. Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, the underground Catholic leader of this Zhejiang diocese, sits in custody, his whereabouts unknown after Chinese authorities arrested him on March 6 for celebrating a Mass that dared to mark the Vatican’s Jubilee Year without their blessing. The 61-year-old prelate’s “crime”? A December 27 gathering of 200 faithful, a joyful kickoff to the Holy Year of Hope that Pope Francis launched in Rome days earlier. For Shao, it’s landed him behind bars, a 200,000 yuan ($27,000) fine unpaid, and a spotlight on a faith caught in a tug-of-war.
It’s a story that feels both timeless and urgent. Shao, appointed coadjutor bishop by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 and full bishop in 2016 after his predecessor’s death, has never bent to Beijing’s rules. He’s refused to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), the state’s leash on religion, which demands loyalty to the Communist Party over the Vatican. That defiance has made him a ghost in the government’s eyes they call his seat vacant, propping up Father Ma Xianshi, a “patriotic” priest, instead. For Shao and his flock, though, he’s the real shepherd, and this latest clash is just another chapter in a decades-long struggle.
The Mass itself was simple but bold. On December 27, 2024, Shao gathered his underground community to echo the Jubilee’s call for renewal, a global Catholic moment tied to forgiveness and pilgrimage. China’s Public Security Bureau saw it differently: a “serious crime” under Article 71 of the Religious Affairs Regulations, which bans unauthorized worship. They slapped him with the fine, ordered his chapel and home razed for “illegal construction,” and when he wouldn’t pay, insisting the Church breaks no just law they hauled him off. “For his own safety,” they claimed, a line that’s left locals like Zhang Wei, a Wenzhou shopkeeper, scoffing. “Safety? They’re scared of a man with a cross.”
Tonight, at 11:19 PM WAT, the faithful are rattled but resolute. “We’re praying nonstop,” said one parishioner, voice low over the phone, part of a campaign Shao himself sparked with a February 25 letter urging Mass, rosaries, and prayers for Pope Francis’ health. Posts on X mirror the mood some, like one at 9:34 WAT Friday, call for Hail Marys; others, like a 1:25 PM WAT cry from March 10, decry a “serious crime” that’s anything but. “He’s a hero,” another wrote at 4:11 PM WAT March 13, “arrested for faith, not fraud.”
READ ALSO: Pope Francis Leaves Hospital After Five-Week Battle with Severe Pneumonia
Shao’s no stranger to this dance. He’s been nabbed before seven times by some counts often around holidays like Easter or Christmas, a rhythm AsiaNews once called “almost scientific.” In 2017, he vanished for seven months, freed only after fasting, prayers, and a German ambassador’s nudge. This time, though, feels heavier. The Jubilee push, the fine, the jail cell it’s a new twist in Beijing’s crackdown, one that’s got the Vatican’s 2018 China deal under a microscope. That secret pact, renewed last October for four years, was meant to bridge the underground and state churches. Critics like Cardinal Joseph Zen say it’s a surrender; Shao’s arrest suggests they might be right.
Wenzhou’s streets tell the tension. Since March, local officials have staked out churches from 7 AM to noon, barring priests from Mass and kids from pews a shift from years of shadowing by national agents. “It’s tighter now,” Zhang admitted. “But we won’t stop.” The underground faithful millions strong nationwide see Shao as their voice, a man who’s paid for it with his freedom. Beijing, meanwhile, flexes its Sinicization muscle, demanding faith bend to Xi Jinping’s vision, not Rome’s.
The Vatican’s quiet so far no word from the Holy See Press Office tonight. Back in 2017, they voiced “grave concern” over Shao; now, with the deal in play, silence hangs thick. Some wonder if it’s diplomacy; others fear it’s defeat. “The Church suffers here,” one X user posted at 7:55 PM WAT March 20, “and Rome watches.” For Wenzhou’s Catholics, it’s personal Shao’s their bishop, their link to a global faith, now a prisoner in his own land.
As Ramadan hums in Lagos and Easter nears, this story’s more than headlines. It’s a man, a Mass, and a fight that’s got the world whispering from X’s prayer chains to hushed talks in Wenzhou’s alleys. Shao’s fate? Unknown. His spirit? Unbroken. And for those 200 who knelt with him that December day, it’s a spark that won’t fade, no matter who holds the keys.