Beijing, China - A bishop who led an underground congregation of Roman Catholics and was repeatedly detained in China for his loyalty to the Vatican died in police custody, a monitoring group said Tuesday.
The U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said Bishop Han Dingxiang, 71, was cremated within six hours of his death Sunday and buried in a public cemetery with no priests or other faithful present. The group, which has long had close contacts with China's underground church members, did not cite sources for its information.
Han, who had been under house arrest or other forms of detention for nearly eight years, died while being treated in a hospital for an unspecified illness, the U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement.
"Why were the priests of his diocese not allowed to bless his remains, and together with his faithful, to pray for this heroic shepherd and to view his body?" the statement asked. "This is not only inhuman and atrocious but also suspicious."
It urged the Vatican to investigate the cause of Han's death.
The Vatican press office said it had no information on the death, but noted that the Cardinal Kung Foundation has been a reliable source of information about the underground church in China in the past.
There have been sporadic reports of the deaths in custody of bishops and other ranking priests in the underground church, many of whom are in their 70s or 80s.
Han was appointed by the Vatican as bishop of Yongnian Diocese in northern China's Hebei province, where he led underground Catholics, who reject the authority of the Communist Party-controlled Chinese Catholic church.
China's officially atheist communist government requires that Christians of all denominations worship in state-registered churches. Millions, however, instead worship in underground churches — known as "house churches" because services are often held in private homes — risking arrest, fines and official harassment.
The government-recognized church allows Catholics to hold the Pope as their spiritual leader, but rejects the Vatican's insistence that only it can appoint bishops.
Bishops loyal to Rome are often appointed in secret, although Beijing and the Vatican have attempted to compromise in some cases by finding candidates acceptable to both. Beijing forced Chinese Catholics to cut ties to Rome in 1951, and the two sides have no diplomatic relations.
Born May 17, 1937, Han served 19 years in a labor camp starting in 1960, the foundation's statement said, without specifying whether that punishment was related to his religious activity.
Ordained a priest in 1986, he was made bishop in 1989 and had been under house arrest or other forms of detention for nearly eight years, it said. His family was notified of his condition only shortly before his death, the statement said.
It said Han was detained at least 11 times while serving as bishop, and that the last was in November 1999 while he was leading a religious retreat for nuns in Hebei's capital, Shijiazhuang.
He was kept in several locations, spending at least two years in housing for police officers and their families, the statement said.
An officer with the Yongnian Public Security Bureau who would only give his surname, Chen, said he had no knowledge of Han's case.