China snubs Zen, invites deputy
(08-08 00:57)
Beijing Olympics organizers have snubbed outspoken Hong Kong Archbishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, inviting his deputy Bishop John Tong Hon to the Games instead, the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano reported.
Tong told the paper he had accepted the invitation ''with ambivalent feelings'' because Zen was not on the guest list.
Zen, the top Chinese figure in the Roman Catholic hierarchy, is an outspoken critic of constraints on religious freedoms in China, where the communist regime has no formal relations with the Vatican.
''Leaders from the six main religions of Hong Kong were invited to Beijing [while] only for the Catholic Church was the invitation not extended to the highest figure,'' Tong said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE |
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