HONG KONG—Using an umbrella as his cane, 90-year-old Cardinal
Joseph Zen
walked into a courtroom Wednesday to sit in on a pretrial hearing for activists facing national-security charges. A thorn in Beijing’s side for decades, the pro-democracy firebrand still commits his days to supporting fellow activists even as his body grows frail.
Soon after, police arrested Cardinal Zen and four others over allegations they had conspired to collude with foreign forces to endanger China’s national security.
Authorities have charged scores of prominent opposition figures during the past two years, but the arrest of a Catholic cardinal was especially jarring to many in the city. Human-rights groups say the move signals the clampdown is likely to intensify under the city’s incoming leader and former security chief, hard-liner
John Lee.
The arrest also highlights a schism within Hong Kong’s large Catholic community over the city’s governance that has widened during years of social upheaval, and threatens to throw a wrench in a recent rapprochement between the Vatican and Beijing. The Vatican expressed concern at the arrest, and its secretary of state, Cardinal
Pietro Parolin,
said he was saddened by the move but hoped it wouldn’t further complicate the dialogue with China.
Seen as a spiritual leader of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, Cardinal Zen has often been at odds with the church hierarchy, which has become more closely aligned with the city’s pro-Beijing government.
Cardinal Zen, waving and holding a donation box, in January 2019.
Photo:
Kin Cheung/Associated Press
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