The publication outlined the content of the letter stating that the Pope had slammed the 'political inference' from the State, with an emphasis on the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).
"The Pontiff's June 30 letter called for total religious freedom for the mainland's Christian community, slamming any interference by political organisations in the internal life of the Church, explicitly singling out the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association or CPCA whose raison d'être is to establish a national Church separate from the Holy See," reported AsiaNews.
Bishop Jia Zhiguo, 73, who heads a diocese in the northern province of Hebei, was taken away following a number of days of Chinese police surveillance.
The bishop previously spent about 20 years in prison for maintaining his loyalty to the Pope rather than China's state-controlled Catholic Church.
The arrest of the Catholic bishop puts another wedge in already tense relations between Beijing and the Vatican.