PRESS ADVISORY:支持中國宗教自由
WHAT:  The Great Firewall of China Marching Brigade of Visual Artists Guild will join the Pasadena Doo-Dah parade
              To bring attention to the persecution in China of Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Underground Catholic Church and House Church Christians
              新 彊維吾爾族 , 西臧佛教徒,中國地下 天主教徒 ,中 國家庭基督教徒
WHEN: Sunday, November 18, 2018, 11 a.m.
               Available for interview starting at 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Pasadena Doo Dah parade, see Map below                                                                                  
MEET:   On Nina St, between Altadena Dr. and Vindeo Ave. at Pasadena, see Map below

CONTACT INFORMATION:  Visual Artists Guild, Ann Lau 310-433-0697, alau@visual-artists-guild.org

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Uighur Re-Education Camp
* Since 2016, there are an estimated a million Uighurs Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, China's westernmost province, who have been put in re-education camps which China's Communist Party claim as "vocational centers".
* Chinese Muslims are forced to undergo indoctrination and rejection of their belief.
* China has pressured Egypt and Turkey to forcibly repatriate Chinese Muslims; upon their arrival in China, they immediately disappear.
* One of the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist academies was demolished last year.
* Tibetan monks and nuns have been imprisoned.  Many Tibetan monks and nuns have committed self-immolation as a desperate act.
* Catholic bishops and priests and Christian pastors who refuse to follow the state mandate, are often put in jail.
* Churches are stripped of outside crosses and statues.  Many churches have also been ordered destroyed by the authorities.
* Jesus and saints' pictures are replaced with Mao and Xi Jinping's pictures at the Church altar
* No one under 18 is allowed to enter a church.
* No discussions of the Bible or meetings on Christian doctrine are allowed outside the church.
* Since the Vatican signed an agreement with China in September, 2018, it effectively gives the government of China defacto authority over the underground Catholics and the underground Catholic clergies.
*Catholic clergies have been disappeared to force them to undergo indoctrination to follow China's religious policies
* Destruction of Catholic shrines and other houses of worship go unabated.
* See poem written below by a Catholic priest

一位被迫仍在「学习」的神父写了几句感慨诗句,但从中却能看到神父们面对如此困境时的决心 与无奈:

良知底线的壁垒已被拆毁,

过去,即使是乱世,仍可造就忠贞,

而今,孕育英雄的土壤已不存在,

给勇士们荣誉的颁奖台也毁坏了,

啊!苦苦持守多年的信仰!

为你,今天我可祭献什么?

无语,上天可否垂怜!

 

Doo Daa Parade Map