Father Zhang Shulai, 55, and Sister Wei Yanhui, 32, both of the underground Catholic Church not recognised by the Beijing government, were stabbed to death in the nursing home where they worked and lived in the district of Wuda in Wuhai, a main city of the northern Inner Mongolia province. Sister Wei, a native of Inner Mongolia, was the director of the nursing home that houses about 60 elderly people. A police investigation is underway, though currently the motives behind the murder and identity of the assassin remain unknown. The hospice staff, not seeing them appear at morning mass, found the bodies of the priest and nun in their rooms. The Catholics of the so-called “underground” Church are those not part of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, founded by the government to exercise state supervision over mainland China’s Catholics and that doesn’t recognise the Pope or Vatican. Chinese Catholics of the Association count around 4-million, while those of the “underground” Church double. Beijing and the Vatican broke diplomatic relations in 1951, when the Holy See recognised Taiwan. The Holy See and Pope have for time, also with a historic letter to the Chinese Catholics in 2007, been attempting to resume ties.
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