Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Inside the VaticanMay 19, 2022
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired bishop of Hong Kong, arrives at West Kowloon Courts Oct. 15, 2020, to support pro-democracy activists who are facing charges related to an illegal vigil assembly commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Cardinal Zen, a trustee of a relief fund paying protesters' legal bills, was detained by National Security Police May 11, 2022. (CNS photo/Tyrone Siu, Reuters)

On May 11, Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 90-year-old pro-democracy prelate of Hong Kong, along with three other advocates for democracy in China, were arrested and questioned on accusations that they were “colluding with foreign forces.”

[Listen and subscribe to Inside the Vatican on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.]

Cardinal Zen was released less than a day later. Following his arrest, the Vatican issued a statement in which it said it is “following the development of the situation very closely.”

On “Inside the Vatican” this week, veteran Vatican reporter Gerard O’Connell and host Colleen Dulle explore why this revered, outspoken defender of human rights and democracy in Hong Kong appears to pose such a grave threat to the Chinese government. The hosts also examine what Cardinal Zen’s arrest could mean for the Catholic church in China.

After that, Colleen and Gerry profile two saints who, like Cardinal Zen, spoke out in favor of justice and peace, and who paid with their lives.

Links from the show:

The latest from america

On this week’s episode of “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley chat with Sam Sorich, an award-winning filmmaker teaching film production at John Paul the Great Catholic University in Escondido, California
JesuiticalApril 11, 2025
It is a profound thing, when society has labeled you a criminal and a felon, to think that at the center of the world’s most populous faith tradition is a man whom those in power at the time condemned as a criminal.
P. G. SittenfeldApril 11, 2025
A still image from the animated film ‘King of Kings’ showing Jesus with a risen Lazarus
A children’s version of the New Testament, ‘King of Kings’ is based on a work by Charles Dickens that was written as a gift to his children.
John AndersonApril 11, 2025