The Catholic Church in Hong Kong yesterday said that confessions by devotees to priests would remain confidential under the territory’s upcoming national security law.
Hong Kong is fast-tracking a homegrown national security law, following the one Beijing imposed in 2020 after quashing huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
The government bill — expected to be put to a legislature vote within days — proposes a maximum jail term of 14 years for any person who knows that someone would commit treason, but fails to report it to the police.
The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong said in a statement that it “recognises that citizens have an obligation to ensure national security.”
However, the security law “will not alter the confidential nature of Confession,” the diocese added.
The diocese had “expressed its views” on the legislation, but told Agence France-Presse that it did not intend to make those views public.
UK-based activist group Hong Kong Watch earlier said the offense “directly threatens religious freedom,” as it would force priests to reveal what was said in the confessional booth against their conscience.
Hong Kong authorities defended the proposed criminal offense — which used to be called “misprision of treason” — saying that it had long existed in the territory and other common law countries.
Responding to a lawmaker’s question last week, Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Paul Lam (林定國) said it would be “very difficult to create exceptions” for people like clergy and social workers regarding the offense.
The government has said the measure “has nothing to do with freedom of religion.”
Hong Kong officials conducted a month-long public consultation on the security law and the subsequent legislative vetting took less than a week.
About 390,000 of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people are Catholic, according to the diocese, and notable devotees include two former Hong Kong leaders.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS