Excerpt from the book:  Misery and Virtue by Theresa Marie Morreau  pages 209-214

IN PHOTO:  (left to right)  Father Hezhou “John Nepomucene” Fu,  Father Shiyu Li, Father Luxian “Aloysius” Jin, Bishop Pinmei Ignatius Gong, (future Cardinal Kung), Father Xipin “Matthew” Zhang, Father Dianxiang “Gabriel” Zhen, Father Hongsheng “Vincent Zhu

“Ready for yard time!  Ready for yard time!”  Tellan Shao, the second-floor worker prisoner announced as he walked through the corridor.  Shao had been sentenced to life in prison because he had killed his wife after he found out that she had a lover.

As the guard unlocked the cell doors, the inmates lined up, two by two, and waited for the order to walk to the basketball court between Cellblock Number 1 and Cellblock  Number 2.

Prior to his transfer to Tilanqaio, Chen had been locked up in the Xuhui District Police Station, where one of his cellmates, Old Yu, had told him about executions in the basketball courts between the cellblocks.

Before he was arrested, Yu had been an investigator for the police department and had once been the supervisor of Officer Zhang, their jailer in the police station.

Yu explained that when Zhang worked for the Public Security Bureau, he zealously joined in the Campaign to suppress Counterrevolutionaries (1950-53).  Day and night, he helped in the helped in the capture and interrogation of countless suspected enemies of the State.

However, the number of prisoners quickly surpassed the number of available cells.  With not enough room in the jails, prisoners were liquidated, sometimes in the Tilanqiao basketball courts.

Like other executioners, zhang enjoyed killing prisoners for the thrill of it.  He would raise his pistol, only inches away from the back of the victim’s neck, and pull the trigger, sending the bullet into the neck and out through the mouth.

 However, one time Zhang had either aimed a little too high or scratched the bullet on a rock for more explosive destruction.  As a result, the bullet hit the back of the victim’s skull, and his brains and blood splattered everywhere around the basketball court, including Zhang’s face and clothing.

After that, Zhang began having nightmares, with visions of his victims haunting him in his sleep.  Even during his waking hours, he feared that the dead would drag him into hell.

During exercise yard time, when Chen saw the basketball courts, he remembered what Yu had told him.

In the yard, inmates stayed in two-by-two line formation, walking circles around the court, nodding and smiling to one another.

“You see the first one?” whispered Chen’s cellmate Youzhen Hong, who was walking behind him.

Chen looked toward the front of the line, where he saw a short man wearing a government-issued policeman’s uniform, different from the usual prisoner clothing.  He wore a blue, thick cotton jacket with four pockets in the front – two at the chest and two at the waist, thick cotton pants and army issued thick cotton shoes, commonly called the big-head shoes.  The white cloth badge he wore over his chest indicated that he was Prisoner Number 28234.

He is wearing government clothes.  He must not have any family visit him, Chen thought.

“That is Pinmei Gong.”  Hong whispered.       .

 

 

Chen had heard about Shanghai’s Roman Catholic Bishop Pinmei “Ignatius” Gong (Pin-Mei Kung).  He respected the man.

Gong and several other Shanghai Catholics had been arrested on September 8, 1955, in a big round up of those who had refused to renounce the authority of the Pope and join the Three-Self Reform Movement.   With its’ three principles – self government – self-propagation and self-support – it was the regime’s Communist Marxist, atheist version of the Roman Catholic Church.

Unsuccessful at winning over converts, the Movement had been replaced by and integrated into the Chinese Catholic Patriot Association on July 15, 1957.

After his arrest, in 1955, Gong wasn’t sentenced until nearly five years later, on March 17, 1960, along with 12 other Catholic priests, after a two-day “trial” in the Court of criminal Justice, Shanghai City intermediate People’s Court, Zhong Xing, Number 162.

In part, the verdict and subsequent sentencing read as follows:

“Defendant, Pinmei Gong, alias Tian-Chueh Kung, male, born in 1901, Cha County, Shanghai City.  Prior to his arrest, he was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Shanghai diocese, and concurrently bishop of the diocese of Suzhou.  Former residence in this city’s Sichuan Road South, Number 36.  Now under arrest…

On the basis of the evidence for criminal activities on the part of Pinmei Gong’s counterrevolutionary and anti-government organization, our court is perfectly cognizant of the fact that the accused, Pinmei Gong, is the leader of this counterrevolutionary and anti-government organization, hiding under the cloak of religion.

He is collaborating with the imperialists to overthrow the People’s democratic political rights of our country to such an extent that he has accomplished serious violations of the country’s interests.  In this case, each defendant has infringed the People’s Republic’s law against counterrevolutionary activities … all of which criminal activities are punishable by law.  Our court, in accordance with the concrete circumstances of the defendant’s criminal activities, and with respect to any expression of repentance on the part of the accused subsequent to their arrest, has decided to pass the following judgment:

“The accused, Pinmei Gong, is the head and leader of the counterrevolutionary and anti-government organization, he is in league with the imperialists, betrayed his motherland, and his crimes are of a very serious nature.  But after his case had been brought forward, when confronted with actual circumstantial evidence, he di not deny his role, and furthermore he had something to reveal on the subject of how the imperialists under the cover of religion plotted subversive actions.  Under the magnanimity of the law we hereby sentence him to lifetime imprisonment, and hereby strip him for life of all his political rights.

During his incarceration, Gong had never been allowed any visitors.  His mother and other relatives made countless attempts to see him, but authorities never permitted the bishop any visition rights.  His family also made endless efforts to get care packages to him, even through the Red Cross, but he never received a single one.

Gong had lived in isolation in a cell on the first floor of Cellblock Number 1, until the Cultural Revolution erupted, then he was moved up to the second floor.

Chen stared at the bishop of Shanghai, forced to wear a shabby policeman’s uniform.  Barely 5 feet tall, the old man symbolized the strength of the Roman Catholic Church, not only in china, but in the world.  His courageous strength and endless faith in God and Pope made him one of the most hated, most feared men by the Communists.

Yes, Chen had a great respect for Bishop Gong.

 

   From the book:   Misery and Virtue by Theresa Marie Moreau                                                      Available on Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

 

Father Sergio Ticozzi   Sunday Examiner   SUNDAYEX.CATHOLIC.ORG.HK

HONG KONG  (SE)  In a call to the universal Church to give its support in any way it can, Father Sergio Ticozzi says that a recent visit to the mainland has left him quite rattled in seeing the difficulties that Catholic people are facing in their everyday faith lives.

The Italian priest from the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and former member of the staff at the Holy Spirit Study Centre in Aberdeen in Hong Kong says that irrespective of whether they belong to the registered official community or the unregistered unofficial community, those who want to be truly loyal to their faith and to the Church hoe a difficult row.

Although he admits that many of these problems are not particularly new, as they have been the bugbear of Catholic people in China for decades, in many ways the tightening of both practice and regulations from the authorities towards the Church have brought old worries to a head again.

On top of this, Father Ticozzi says that the current dialogue going on between Beijing and the Vatican is leaving many people wondering.  The very clandestine nature of what is being discussed has led to many rumors.

In a Church that lives behind the curtains, rumors can run wild like a forest fire in a dry summer.

He said that the one thing that came as a surprise is the cunning pressure that is being applied to members of both expressions of the Church.  First from the civil authorities.  Also from those people within the church who collaborate with them.

He also notes that while the official Church is being attacked in extremely subtle ways, and, often from within its own ranks, the government is overtly attempting to eliminate the unregistered communities.

Additionally, he says that within the Church people suffer from the interference and abuse of corrupt government officials who manage to unduly influence both Bishops and Priests.  Sometimes it is done with threats and sometimes with bribes, which leave people unsure of how to act in dealings with the clergy.

Father Ticozzi points out that  “it is well known that Bishops, who are recognized by the Holy See, hold positions of authority in the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

The people know that the CCPA is independent from Rome and that it promotes illicit ordination as well as other things that are incompatible with Catholic Doctrine.

Then there are Bishops who take part in illegitimate episcopal ordinations and concelebrate with excommunicated Bishops”

Father Ticozzi says that this “leaves many people wondering who their true shepherds are and who they can receive the Sacraments from.”

“But” he points out “the new piece in the puzzle is the Vatican-Beijing dialogue.  The peoples’ wondering is partly because many are not really sure what the dialogue is and they hear the rumours that are being spread.”

“Some” he says “asked me if Rome was really accepting the government policy to exterminate the unofficial community, or, whether it wanted hem to join the Patriotic Association.”

Father explained that “the people deal with their uncertainities in different ways.  Some hide themselves away, seeking guidance and nourishment only from their Priests, whereas others attempt to deal with the complexities and contradictions as best they can.”

He points out that “either way, many difficulties present themselves.   Hiding is not healthy and dealing with complexities with only uncertain knowledge is extremely difficult.

Either way, Father Ticozzi says:   “The Church in China is in real need of support from the Universal Church.”

 

 

Pictured are the six Protestant Ministers who helped Pope Paul VI utterly destroy the Catholic Mass. Pope Paul VI stands, with his friends,  smiling … last on the right.

Liturgical Reform, having as one of its basic principles the abolition of all mystical acts and formulations, insists upon the use of modern languages for the divine service.

Hatred for the Latin languge is inborn in the heart of all enemies of Rome.

They recognize it as the bond that unites Catholics throughout the world, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subleties of the sectarian spirit.

They consider it the most powerful arm of the Papacy

Protestantism is well on its’ way to victory should it ever succeed in destroying the use of the Latin language.

Exposed to a profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that  moment on the liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one’s work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks in the marketplace.

How long do you think the faithful will go to hear these self-styled liturgists cry “The Lord be with you” and how long will they continue to respond ‘and with your spirit”

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B.                                                                                                            Liturgical Institutions, Vol. 1;  Chapter IV,  “The Anti-liturgical Heresy. 1840

 

 

 

 

 

Henry the Eighth – ‘Defender of the Faith’