My Way News - China maintains hard line on ties with Vatican
My Way News reports: "China has an estimated 12 million Catholics, millions of whom worship in independent congregations outside the control of the party's Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. Priests who reject party control run the risk of severe punishment, including Shanghai's would-be Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, who was stripped of his title by the association and remains under virtual house arrest nine months after announcing he was withdrawing from the Patriotic Association and its accompanying official bishops' conference."