Hong Kong may face Bible shortage
As the Chinese Communist Party imposes restrictions on religious content in Hong Kong, a shortage of Bibles is being reported in the city where its high degree of autonomy was ended two years ago with the enactment of the National Security Law.
The Catholic religious order of Franciscans, which runs the biblical research institute Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Hong Kong, has found that printing companies fear that printing the Bibles without government approval might lead to trouble with authorities, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.
“Studium Biblicum Franciscanum has been unable to find a suitable printing house for the Catholic Chinese Bibles and therefore has not been able to print the new Catholic Chinese Bibles,” the U.S.-based watchdog group ChinaAid quoted Franciscan Friar Raymond Mary Yeung, a member of the SBF, as saying.
“At present, all of the Society’s stock of Catholic Chinese Bibles have been sold to bookstores, and if the printing problem is not resolved in the near future, there will be a shortage,” he added.
The Chinese government recently declared that Christians must first register and gain approval by the State to post religious content online, ICC said, adding that the regulation is aimed at controlling and aligning religion with the party’s political ideology and goals, a process often referred to as “Sinicization.”
Source: christianpost.com
