China – We cannot show you their faces The hidden life of the country’s Catholic faithful
On Good Friday 2016, a Christian woman protesting over plans to demolish her Church’s cross was hospitalised. She was severely injured after armoured police carrying riot shields confronted the Christian protestors in Whengzou, Zhejiang Province. This is not the first such incident in the province. Since early 2014 the government has carried out the whole or partial demolition of churches or church-run buildings – in most cases they remove the crosses on the roof tops, claiming that they violate building regulations. Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun told Aid to the Church in Need: “The Chinese government has intensified the persecution recently. We have seen demolished churches, crosses taken away from the buildings, therefore there’s not much we can hope for immediately.” Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation of the Catholic Church and registered in Malta as a Foundation regulated by the second schedule of the Civil Code Chapter (16) of the Laws of Malta.
In recent years Christians – including members of the 12 million strong Catholic community – have suffered arrests, re-education, demolition of churches, bans on religious activities and hefty fines. ACN is helping support this suffering Church keep the Faith – including helping seminarians and religious, and rebuilding churches – but we cannot show you the faces of those we are helping for fear they will suffer further reprisals. This is an unusual report, because security problems and other sensitivities mean we are not able to say where our ACN projects are. Many live out their Faith not knowing when the hand of the authorities will fall upon them. In order not to endanger those we are helping we have had to be silent in this report about exactly where we are helping. Please pray for China’s Christians as they strive to live their faith.
An onlooker sees a Churc h’s cross removed in Lishui, Zhejian g Province.
© China Aid
Chinese Catholics praying at a rural shrine.
Helping the suffering Church today
Rebuilding Christ’s Church in China Hebei Province in north-eastern China has the largest number of Catholics in the country – about 1.5 million – but these Christians experience the most repression. Yet, despite persecution and poverty, they continue to keep the Faith. A bishop in the region quietly told ACN about the situation for one rural community: “About 500 Christians live in the village – and their faith is full of life.” There have been Catholics there since Jesuit missionaries came in the sixteenth century. But the church built in 1986 has started
to fall down and is in desperate need of repair. In this rural area parishioners have very little and cannot afford the costs involved. They have turned to Aid to the Church in Need, asking us for help to build a new, larger church. But we cannot tell you where this is for fears the church would be attacked for accepting foreign aid. Around 25 percent of our help for China’s Catholics – around €194,000 – supports the building or rebuilding of churches, catechetical centres, convents, and other buildings helping the faith to flourish.
Two Chinese Christians pray silently in the Old Church in Pingyao, Shanxi Province. This is not the church referred to in the story which we cannot show you because of fears about the community’s safety.
The True
Christ is their life: adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at a chapel in Hebei Province.
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Asked what inspired his great love for the Blessed Sacrament, Archbishop Fulton Sheen shared a story he had been told about Communist soldiers overrunning one Catholic village during the revolution. Archbishop Sheen was one of the first priests to promote the Faith through the media: he was declared Venerable in 2012. He recounted how the Communists rounded up the village’s inhabitants, forced them to gather in the church, and made them watch as they
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They have sacrificed everything for God: Underground seminarians at prayer in an archive photo from an ACN project trip.
Going Underground
We speak about China’s “Underground” Church – but some seminaries are quite literally underground. Students spend long periods unable to leave – or even pray aloud – for fear that they will be denounced to the authorities. Aid to the Church in Need is helping with the training of seminarians living and studying in these dire circumstances. Despite these difficulties, the country’s crushing restriction on the number of children couples can have and the importance of the male child in the family system, young men are still coming forwards to be priests. They are prepared to give up everything for God. In a tricky situation, where priests
are few, religious and lay people are vital to the Chinese Church. Religious orders help keep the church together through prayer and charity. In China there are currently about 5,000 consecrated people, one of the great riches of China’s Church. This is why we are helping one community of 30 nuns in a diocese of northern China. Your generosity is helping to provide formation, food and accommodation. In 2014, 42.5 percent of our aid for China’s suffering Christians, more than €329,000, was devoted to the training of priests, religious and laity – equipping them for their difficult and dangerous tasks.
Value of the Holy Eucharist destroyed the tabernacle, throwing the consecrated Hosts down on the floor. The soldiers’ captain warned them never to return to the Church. But that night, one little girl went to the church despite the risk to her own life. After an hour of prayer in reparation for the desecration, she knelt and received Jesus in Holy Communion, picking up a Host from the floor with her tongue. The girl came back every night. She kept this up for more than a month, but on the 32nd night, after reverently consuming the final Host, she was discovered and killed.
Even today the faithful in China teach us the true value of the Holy Eucharist. Fr Chen Hailong, was arrested near Beijing in 2011 for refusing to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association – the official state body for the Church which seeks to control it in line with Communist Party principles. He was placed in solitary confinement at an unknown location and deprived of food and sleep. During the months he spent in captivity he almost died from malnutrition. Fr Chen painted an image of the Blessed Sacrament on
the wall of his cell and passed his time praying in front of it. The Eucharist is the life-blood of China’s Catholic communities. Masses for the intentions of ACN’s donors are being offered by priests in China – and your stipends are an important way of supporting priests. Underground priests know that they may be arrested if they are found saying Mass, but they have a courageous faith, stronger than fear. The Holy Eucharist symbolises their journey of faith, communion and witness.
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Witnesses to Christ China is a land of saints and martyrs whose testimony witnesses to the greatness of Jesus’ love. Below we remember some of China’s bishops and priests who have paid the price for their fidelity to Christ with persecution, torture, imprisonment and even death.
Bishop Cosma Shi Enxiang’s only crime was remaining faithful to Christ and staying in communion with his Church and the successor of Saint Peter. He spent more than 50 years in and out of prison. Arrested again on Good Friday 2001, at the age of 78, his family was never told where he was being held. Despite reports in 2015 that he had died, Beijing refuses to confirm this – fuelling rumours he died from torture or starvation.
Bishop James Su Zhimin. Nothing has been heard of him since he was arrested in Xinji in 1997 at the age of 65.
Bishop Cosm o probably died in detention, but his fate is still uncertain.
Father Zhang Guangjun. After his arrest in Hebei, he was severely beaten and tortured for refusing to join the Patriotic Association. More than 20 priests from Xuanhua and Chongli-Xiwanzi Dioceses have been arrested, tortured and forced to attend re-education classes in recent years.
Bishop Joseph Wu Qinjing. After being ordained to the episcopacy in 2007, he was placed under house arrest at the minor seminary in Xian – but he was released in July 2015.
Fathers Liu Honggeng and Ma Wuyong. Since refusing to join the Patriotic Association in December 2014, they have been kept in prison in Qingyuan.
Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang. First arrested in 1955 for “counter-revolutionary activities,” he spent most of his life in prison, work camps, or under house arrest. He died while still under house arrest on 16th March 2014.
Father Joseph Lu Genjun. After eight years in solitary confinement, he was released at the end of 2014.
Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin. Placed under house arrest in Sheshan Seminary after standing down from his position in the Patriotic Association at his ordination as Bishop of Shanghai in 2012.
Father Wang Chengli. Sentenced to two-and-ahalf years of re-education through labour in 2011 for ministering to the Underground Church. His family have not been allowed to visit him.
Fathers Zhang Jianlin and Cui Tai. Both were arrested in 2011. No news has been heard of either of them since.
It can be difficult to obtain accurate information from China. The above represents the current situation of these priests as we understand it.
Please pray for those who are being unjustly held by Communist authorities.
China Facts & Figures Population
Christian population
Catholic population (official & und erground)
1.3 billion
66 million 12 million
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Traditional
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Christians
Others
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