Honoring Cardinal Joseph Zen, “Conscience of Hong Kong”

VOC Chief of Staff Davey Talbot, Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom recipients Chen Guangcheng and Cardinal Joseph Zen, and VOC Executive Director Marion Smith

On January 28, more than 200 guests gathered in Washington, D.C., to help the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) honor Cardinal Joseph Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, with the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.

Cardinal Zen is a vocal proponent of human rights in Hong Kong and China. Called the “New Conscience of Hong Kong,” he has criticized the Vatican’s deal with the Chinese Communist Party to accept Party-approved Bishops into the leadership of the Catholic Church in China, among other issues.

After accepting the Medal from VOC Chairman Dr. Lee Edwards, Cardinal Zen remarked: “I want to remember many of those heroes who are suffering at this moment in China or Hong Kong for voicing their claim for respect of their dignity, for freedom, and for democracy — those well-known and those anonymous heroes.”