Mysterious banners have appeared outside seven Catholic churches that will be holding mass services this week for victims of the 1989 Beijing Tiananmen massacre, with warnings about breaking national security laws.

The church services are scheduled for Friday night by the Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese.

The banners outside the seven churches carried the same design. Slogans on the banners included “a cult has invaded the faith,” “incitement in the name of worship, blood on the hands for splitting the church,” and “antichrist in the end of days, emergence of false prophets.”

Church members were warned that they might be implicated in breaches of the national security law. The banners also had a photo of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, and flipped the logo of the commission to form part of the English word “devil.”

The seven churches are the Holy Cross Church in Sai Wan Ho, the St. Bonaventure Parish in Tsz Wan Shan, the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Shek Kip Mei, the St. Andrew’s Church in Hang Hau, the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Tuen Mun, the Church of St Benedict in Sha Tin and the SS Cosmas and Damian Church in Tsuen Wan.

Porson Chan, a member of the commission, said staffers arriving for work at 7 a.m. saw the banners and did not know who had put them up. The commission respected people’s freedom of expression, but one should not commit unlawful acts, he said.

Chan said they were not offended by the banners and would laugh off the matter. They would remove the banners with no intention of taking follow-up action, he said.

The mass services would go ahead as planned, Chan said, expecting non-believers to turn up. The commission would remind participants to respect Catholic procedures and to refrain from shouting or displaying slogans.

The churches could receive visitors only up to 30% of their capacity due to rules under the pandemic.

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