A CATHOLIC priest from China’s Shaanxi province was injured seriously after two men beat him up inside a mayor’s office, where he had been invited to discuss issues related to a disputed Church property.
Fr Francis Gao Jianli, a priest of the Fengxiang diocese, was hospitalised in Baoji after he was attacked at the mayor’s office in Xiangong town, part of the city of Baoji, Church sources told UCA News. After the attack Fr Gao complained of numbness, dizziness and headache, but later said he was feeling better, the sources said. The local Church has been asking for the return of a plot of land after a factory that occupied it since the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution closed several years ago.