By Catholic News Service
HONG KONG — A Catholic priest who once operated a website that ran afoul of Chinese authorities has died under mysterious circumstances.
On Nov. 11, police informed the family of Father Pedro Yu Heping, 40, also known as Wei Heping, that the priest’s body had been found in the Fen River, a tributary of the Yellow River that flows through Shanxi province, reported ucanews.com.
Father Yu’s body was found Nov. 8, a day after the priest was supposed to be arriving in Xingcheng, in northeastern Liaoning province.
Church leaders from different parts of China and faithful who were close to the priest gathered in Taiyuan, Shanxi’s provincial capital, where his body was found, hoping to get more information.
“Two nuns saw Father Yu off for a bus to the train station in Taiyuan on Nov. 6,” said a source, who asked to remain anonymous. “Various church members were still able to talk to him over the phone that day.”
Father Yu was expected to appear in Xingcheng in the afternoon of Nov. 7 to join a catechetical meeting, but he did not show up. Earlier in the day, a nun received a text message from Father Yu’s mobile phone. The message contained only one Chinese character — bie, which could be interpreted to mean “farewell” — the source said.
“No one believed Father Yu, as a dedicated priest, would commit suicide,” the source told ucanews.com. “But now even a postmortem is not trustworthy.”