Despite heightened security, Bishop Ma Daqin blogs

November 06, 2012: China has tightened security across the country as well as in cyberspace to ensure a smooth opening of the Communist Party Congress this Thursday, which is expected to see a once-in-a-decade power transition.
Despite this heightened security, Auxiliary Bishop Ma Daqin of Shanghai, who is forbidden from exercising his espicopal ministry and is confined to Sheshan Seminary, is still updating his blog.
In a blog entitled, “Letter of a Child,” posted on Saturday, Bishop Ma reminisces about his parents, as November is the Month of the Holy Souls, but says he felt “very gratified” that they died early.
“If they were still alive today, I don’t know how nervous and worried [about me] they would be!” he writes, adding that when visitors go to see him, their first words are often “have you been beaten up?” or “you look thin and gaunt.”
Bishop Ma said even though drinking tea (his metaphor for being summoned by government officials) many times and being warned not to have any illusions, “my thoughts are free.”
The Vatican-approved prelate, 45, has been at the seminary for almost four months after he announced he was quitting the Catholic Patriotic Association — which advocates an independent Church — at his episcopal ordination in July.