ICC Note:

China has made attending Christmas mass for many Catholics a complicated ordeal. In Beijing, church-goers were subjected to hours of waiting to make their way through security checks before they were allowed into the churches. Some reported that while waiting in line security officers were posted about every three meters. In other regions, however, Christmas services were banned altogether. Churches in the provinces of Hebeir, Henan, and Inner Mongolia reported being banned from meeting, and a service in Henan was reportedly disbanded after it had begun. Police checkpoints at intersections in Hebei turned away would be church-goers. Some church leaders reported that government officials stayed at their homes to make sure they did not mobilize people for services.

12/26/2016 China (UCA News) – For those of the underground and open church communities in China, participating at the midnight Christmas Eve Mass is an ordeal.

In Beijing for example, it often means competing for admission and going through hours queuing for a security check mandatory in any of the four downtown open churches, popularly known as North, South East and West churches.

Since Xishuku church (North church) is under renovation, parishioners had to opt for the other churches. This led to the midnight Mass presided over by Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral (South church), being more crowded than usual.

“About half of the 5,000 attendees were unfamiliar faces coming from other churches or non-Beijing residents,” Joseph Zhang, a parishioner of South church, told ucanews.com.

“We spent three hours queuing up for a security check for the midnight Mass that lasted two hours.”

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