China: underground priest, six seminarians die in car crash

Fr Shi Liming

Catholics across China are mourning the deaths of a priest and six seminarians who died in a road accident in the north of the country on Sunday, UCAN news reports. Another seminarian was seriously injured in the crash involving a minivan.

Father Shi Liming, 39, was driving along the Jinzhou section of Hebei provincial highway, at the time of the accident, Church sources said. Fr Liming was ordained in Baoding diocese about 10 years ago. He was serving at Baoding Seminary, which does not have a fixed location, in order to avoid government crackdowns.

A nun in Heibei said: "It is not easy to cultivate priestly vocations nowadays. It is terribly sad this tragedy has suddenly taken them away all at once."

Source: UCAN