December 15, 2005
China investigating attack on Nuns
Total Catholic reports on authorities in Xian, China, having opened an investigation into the beating of 16 nuns who tried to save a school from demolition. Officials have arrested 11 suspects.
"On Nov. 23, about 40 assailants beat 16 Franciscan missionary nuns who tried to stand in the way of the destruction of the diocese's School of the Rosary. As a result of the attack, Sister Dong Jianian, 41, suffered a fraction to her spinal column. Another nun, Sister Cheng Jing, 34, was blinded in one eye. Three other nuns were hospitalized.
Initially, government officials had done everything to cover up the incident, AsiaNews said. The police responded late to the sisters' call for help, and news of the attack was censored from newspapers and Web sites.
The incident, however, garnered international attention. The U.S. bishops' conference even wrote a critical letter to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Thanks to this and to the spread of news locally - by word-of-mouth, text messaging and e-mail - government authorities decided to take action by opening an investigation and detaining 11 of the assailants".
Other incident:
-- Chinese Authorities Step Up Anti-Separatist Campaign in Tibetan Region - Chinese authorities have expelled some 40 Buddhist nuns from a convent in the Tibetan regional capital, Lhasa, in a renewed crackdown on suspected separatists in Tibetan Buddhist institutions
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