China: Chinese government security agents have arrested a Catholic priest, three months after the bishop of his diocese was taken away, in the latest crackdown on non-government controlled Christian churches in China.
Father Zhao Kexun was "forcibly abducted" by security officials in Xuanhua, a district in the northern province of Hebei, after performing a private Mass on Wednesday, according to the US-based monitoring group, the Cardinal Kung Foundation.
Security officials make periodic crackdowns on some of the estimated 12 million Catholics who worship in secret in China.
Relations between the atheist Communist Party and the Catholic Church have always been strained at best. China cut off ties with the Vatican shortly after the revolution in 1949 and allows worship only in official, state-sponsored churches.
An official at the Xuanhua public security bureau said he was unaware of the arrest of the elderly cleric.
Father Zhao was an administrator for the Xuanhua diocese. He was on his way home from the service in a private house when he was abducted, the foundation said. A woman with him also was detained but was released shortly afterwards.
The whereabouts of the 75-year-old priest remain unknown.
Last December, Father's Zhao's superior, Bishop Zhao Zhendong (83), was arrested in December, the foundation said.
It did not give any other details.
When pressed on Bishop Zhao's whereabouts at the time, the Chinese government denied it had arrested the bishop, saying he was only attending classes about the country's official religion policies.
China has an "official" Catholic Church that does not recognise the authority of the papacy.
The Cardinal Kung Foundation reckons the underground Catholic Church in China has 12 million followers.
Many unofficial Masses are held openly but church leaders are routinely arrested and harassed.
The foundation said 33 members of seven dioceses have been arrested and imprisoned in Hebei alone, with many others in the same situation in other provinces.