Beijing, China - The state-sanctioned China Catholic Patriotic Association rejected Monday a report saying four priests who served underground churches in China were arrested by police because they shunned the official organization.
"It is impossible for any priest to be arrested because they do not want to join the Patriotic Association," association Vice Chairman Liu Bainian told Kyodo News by telephone. "China is a country that endorses the rule of law. The alleged incident could not have existed."
According to the U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, which exposes persecutions against underground churches in China, plain-clothed police officers arrested three priests last week in China's Inner Mongolia and another priest in Hebei Province in the northeast earlier in the month.
All four priests serviced underground churches and refused to join the association, the foundation said, suggesting it was the reason of their arrests.
The four priests -- Liang Aijun, 35, Wang Zhong, 41, Gao Jinbao, 34, and Cui Tai, 50 -- were based in Hebei.
The foundation said the three priests arrested in Inner Mongolia refused to join the association and were hiding in Inner Mongolia to avoid arrest.
Cui, who also refused to join the association, was taken away for a minor traffic accident and has been in custody ever since.
The police could not be reached for comment.
The foundation urged the Chinese government to "immediately to stop all persecution and release all Roman Catholic bishops and clergy together with those faithful of other faiths from prisons as a goodwill gesture to Pope Benedict."
The Pope released a letter in different languages to followers in China reiterating the illegitimacy of the College of Catholic Bishops of China which has accepted government interference and saying that bishop ordinations without papal approval in the past inflicted a "painful wound" and that the Holy See desires to be completely free to appoint bishops in China.