British Politicians Call Upon Pope Leo XIV To Stand Up For Jimmy Lai
Vatican, June 21, 2025. Pope Leo XIV meets with political leaders during the Jubilee of Governments ... More at the Apostolic Palace on June 21, 2025, in Vatican City, Vatican. Greeting the members of the delegations coming from 68 different countries, Pope Leo said politics has rightly been defined as 'the highest form of charity.' (Photo credit: Elisabetta Trevisan - Vatican Media via)
On June 21, 2025, Alex Sobel MP, Member of the U.K. Parliament, delivered a letter to Pope Leo XIV after a special audience for members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in the Hall of Benediction, the Vatican, calling upon him to stand up for Jimmy Lai. Jimmy Lai, a British citizen aged 77, and a devout and practicing Catholic, has been imprisoned by Hong Kong authorities since December 2020. The audience followed the Second Parliamentary Conference on Interfaith Dialogue: Strengthening trust and embracing hope for our common future. The conference, jointly organized by the IPU and the Parliament of Italy, brought together hundreds of MPs, including Speakers, as well as religious leaders, UN officials, civil society representatives, and international experts from close to 100 countries, responding to the motto of the Jubilee Year to be 'pilgrims of hope' amid a climate of growing conflict, polarization and the weaponization of religion. During the audience, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of human rights for everyone: 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved and proclaimed by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, is now part of humanity's cultural heritage. That text, which is always relevant, can contribute greatly to placing the human person, in his or her inviolable integrity, at the foundation of the quest for truth, thus restoring dignity to those who do not feel respected in their inmost being and in the dictates of their conscience.'
After the audience, Pope Leo XIV met many of the attendees. Alex Sobel MP was among those able to meet the Pope and delivered a letter signed by several Parliamentarians from the U.K., raising the dire situation of Jimmy Lai. Among the signatories of the letters were two Politicians sanctioned by China for their advocacy on the situation of human rights in China and Hong Kong - Lord Alton of Liverpool and Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws LT KC, and the last Governor of Hong Kong - the Rt Hon. the Lord Patten of Barnes KG CH.
As the letter stressed, Jimmy Lai, 'Despite being vilified in the Hong Kong media and relentlessly pursued by hostile authorities with vexatious charges, he is guilty as proven on one simple charge: speaking up for democracy and human rights for all and speaking against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) oppression and their suppression of human rights - the values which St John Paul II fought for in Poland during the communist tyranny there.'
Jimmy Lai has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for over 1,600 days now and faces life imprisonment for simply standing by his principles. Given his age and the condition of his health, he may not live for many more years. In prison, those few remaining years will mean pain and suffering. In addition to being placed in solitary confinement (despite posing no threat to anyone), an act that of itself heightens the risk to his life, Jimmy Lai, a man of deep Catholic faith, has been frequently denied Holy Communion and has not been permitted to attend Mass services held in the prison. There is no reasonable justification for this denial, and it amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment.
The letter calls upon Pope Leo XIV to 'raise the case of Jimmy Lai with the Chinese authorities and to seek spiritual assistance for him. He should be allowed to see a priest, to receive Holy Communion, and to attend Mass without any further obstruction.' British Parliamentarians further asked for Pope Leo XIV to meet with Jimmy's son, Sebastien Lai, to give him a blessing and the encouragement to continue his fight for the freedom of his father.
Pope Leo XIV is yet to respond to the letter and the calls for restoring the human dignity that Jimmy Lai is deprived of every single day, with the inhumane treatment in prison - the human dignity that Pope Leo XIV has been raising in the recent audience. In the meantime, Jimmy Lai continues to be imprisoned, mostly in isolation, while awaiting the outcome of a long-delayed trial for sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed controversial National Security Law.
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