Christian Missionaries in China
Introduction: This China article includes an abridged true story by Father Fred Gehring, published in 1962, and republished as Miraculous, in 2019, by his cousin Robert T. Fertig. ?
After China’s economic boom and rapid modernization, there was the emergence of a “spiritual vacuum” for millions of religious believers, particularly adherents of Catholics, Buddhists, Protestants, and Muslims faiths.?China’s constitution “allows” religious adherents across religious organizations, from state-sanctioned Christians to “Vatican approved Bishops” and other religions. Muslims and Christians that are more vigorous faced persecution and repression in “consecration camps.”
Regulation of Religions: Article 36 of the?Chinese constitution ?says that citizens “enjoy freedom of religious belief.” It supposedly bans discrimination based on religion and forbids state organs, including public organizations, or individuals from compelling citizens to believe in—or not believe in—any particular faith. The State Council administrative authority,?passed regulations on religious affairs , which took effect in February 2018, to allow state-registered religious organizations to possess property, publish (with prior approval) literature, train and approve (with prior approval) clergy and bishops, and collect donations. Yet alongside these so-called “rights” come heightened government controls. The revised rules include restrictions on children religious schooling and locations of religious celebrations, as well as monitoring of online religious activity and reporting?donations that exceed 100,000 yuan ?(approximately $16,000).
Human Rights Watch says that while religious belief in China is protected by the [Communist] constitution, it “does not guarantee the right to practice or worship.” Religious practices are limited to “normal religious activities,” although “normal” is undefined. The state recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islamic faith, and Protestantism. These organizations must register with one of five state-sanctioned patriotic religious associations, supervised by the?State Administration for Religious Affairs ?(SARA).
The government’s tally of registered religious believers is around two hundred million, or less than 10 percent of the population, according to the UN Human Rights Council’s 2018?Universal Periodic Review . Independent reports suggest the number of religious adherents in China is far larger and steadily increasing. The research and advocacy group Freedom House estimated in 2017 that there are more than?350 million religious believers ?in China, primarily Buddhists, Protestants, Muslims, Catholics, and Tibetan Buddhists.
Chinese public security officials monitor both registered and unregistered religious groups to prevent activities that might “disrupt public order , or interfere with the educational system of the State,” as stipulated by the constitution. In practice, monitoring and crackdowns often target peaceful activities protected under international law. [They destroyed countless Catholic churches and sculptures of the Blessed Virgin Mary.]
Overall, “religious groups have been swept up in a broader?tightening of CCP control over civil society ?and anti-Western ideological bent under [Chinese President] Xi Jinping,” according to Freedom House.?Under Xi, the CCP has pushed to shape all religions to conform to the doctrines of the official atheist party and the customs of the Han Chinese population. New regulations that went into effect in early 2020 require religious groups to spread CCP ideology ?and values. Faith organizations must now get approval from the government’s religious affairs office before conducting any activities. The Catholic Church, under Pope Francis, negotiated a “secret agreement” with the aid of disreputable Cardinal McCarrick. Pope Francis and McCarrick never consulted Cardinal Zin, traditional Chinese Catholic leader, sanctioned by Saint John Paul II. The Peoples Republic of China jailed the 90-year-old Cardinal, who was later released.
China is home to one of the largest populations of religious prisoners, which includes an estimated two million Uyghurs (Muslims) in Xinjiang. Traditional Catholics, which includes an estimated hundred million faithful, are now largely undergrown. They do not accept PRC-Vatican bishops as valid leaders of the Catholic Church.
Atheism: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is atheist. Officials have said that party membership and religious beliefs are incompatible, and they discourage families of CCP members from publicly participating in religious ceremonies. Although these regulations are not always strictly enforced, the party periodically takes steps to draw a clearer line on religion. In 2017, the party’s official newspaper warned CCP members from?faith in religion , calling it “spiritual anesthesia.”
China has the world’s largest Buddhist population, with an estimated 185–250 million practitioners, according to Freedom House. Although Buddhism originated in India, it has a long history and tradition in China. A 2012 Pew Research Center report found more than 294 million people , or 21 percent of China’s population, practice “folk religions.” Chinese folk religions have no organizational structure, blend practices from Buddhism and Daoism, and worship ancestors, or other deities. Buddhism, Daoism, and folk religions are authentically Chinese old religions and there is more tolerance of these religions by the PRC than of Islam or Christianity.
Under former Chinese leaders Jiang Zemin, the government “passively supported ” the growth of Buddhism because it believed doing so helped bolster the image of China’s peaceful rise, and supported the CCP’s goal of creating a “harmonious society.” The growth of Buddhism led to heightened visibility of its institutions, particularly?Buddhist philanthropic organizations ?that deliver social services to the poor amid soaring inequality in China.
However, since Chairman Xi has come to power (ten years ago), experts have noted an apparent easing of tough rhetoric against, and even a promotion of, traditional beliefs in China. Xi has expressed hope that China’s “traditional cultures ” of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism could help curb the country’s [serious] “moral decline.”
Catholic Missions in China (Abridged): Father Frederic P. Gehring was ordained in 1930, and assigned to the Vincentian Mission in China headed by Bishop John A. O'Shea. In 1932, the word came that the situation in Kiangsi China had eased and that missionaries could be there again. From Germantown, PA came word that he would leave for San Francisco. There, he would board the President Coolidge, which was to be Fr. Gehring’ s "slow boat to China."
China’s Walled City: They arrived in Shanghai harbor on the morning of June 11, 1933. The Vicariate was in one of the deepest inland walled cities in South China in Kiangsi Province. One of the first American missionaries to heed the Pope's call to the American community. For eleven years, Missionary Father Erbe labored in Kiangsi, transforming a small village into a Christian community of more than three thousand. With his own hands, he had laid the foundation stone for a school and a church. "There is so much to be done in China that it almost scares one to think about it, and so the best thing is not to think about it but just to go ahead and do it.”
China, he explained, is like a giant that had been restlessly tossing in sleep for centuries. Its ancient philosophers had been brilliant men, among the first on earth to preach the “beauty of peace and good fellowship.” Yet this land almost never had known much peace. For centuries, tribal wars had bathed its infinite landscape in red. Then, when it seemed to be achieving some semblance of unity and harmony, it experienced the nightmare of aggression by Japan, followed by Communist dictatorship. The best of China's old customs were gone and it was in a state of ferment.
It badly needed the missionary spirit and zeal to bring it new faith in ancient but still current values and beliefs.
Kiangsi Province: Ever since 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek began fighting the Communists, rebel bands have had a perfect hideout in the inaccessible mountain country of Kiangsi. Chiang drove the Reds from Nanking, Canton, and Shanghai, but his troops have never been able to penetrate their stronghold in Kiangsi Province. There are about eighty thousand Reds in the Kiangsi Mountains. Several times a year, they swoop down to terrorize the countryside. They have proclaimed the capital of what they call 'Soviet China' in Kiangsi."
As we approached Kanchow, the sun began to dip down into the Kiangsi hills. We looked down on a huge valley and saw the glistening rooftops of Kanchow encircled by the dark shadow of a massive wall. Signs of a terrific battle were evident everywhere. Trenches dug around the city gates, and within the city for protection.
We soon found more indications of the ferocity of the Red assault in bullet-holes that scarred the buildings of the Catholic Mission itself. What an impressive mission it was! It was actually a city within a city, occupying foursquare blocks. Here were buildings to house the native Sisters (Kukus), the young seminarians, two orphanages, and homes for the teachers at the mission. Most impressive were the quarters for some four hundred refugees-poor souls who had been living at the mission ever since they fled there at the time of the siege.
The head of the Vicariate was Bishop O'Shea. He was frail and white-haired, but his blue eyes were lively and his movements were even quicker. Here was a man who had spent the better part of his life surrounded by the all-too-grim reality of China, but he had nevertheless preserved a vision that was much deeper and more beautiful than our own. "Although we come as missionaries," he said, "there is much that we can learn from these poor children of the soil: the lesson of uncomplaining patience and endurance. The souls we deal with are the sturdy mountain folk who know nothing of the pleasures that we know back home, nor of the niceties of life. Ancestor-worship is their only religion that’s handed down to them. For centuries, they learned to pay homage to the devil himself, to coax and flatter the evil spirits. In this way, they hope to win his good graces and protect themselves from harm."
Bishop O'Shea talked of the gains that they already made in leading thousands of pagans from age-old ignorance that surrounded them. Kiangsi was not a small parish by any means. Throughout the district there were scattered some twenty-four small mission outposts, covering an area larger than Long Island, New York. At these various out-missions there were Chinese catechists stationed to keep watch over the handful of Christians in each tribe and bring them together at evening for prayer and catechism class, preparing them for the day when the Shen Fu (the priest) would arrive to pay his mission visit.
"At the present time," the Bishop said, smiling ruefully, "I'm afraid that the only way we can reach them is by mule or horseback, or sometimes by bicycle. To make a conscientious tour takes six solid weeks in the saddle-a trying ordeal for anyone, yet the missionary must plod on, regardless of all the obstacles he has to face."
Day began at five A.M. for my fellow priests and myself. First, there was an hour of meditation with morning prayers, then Mass, and breakfast at seven. By eight o’clock, we were in the classroom with Professor Tsai. We soon discovered that to speak Chinese is one thing; to speak it correctly is another; to pronounce it in its singsong way is still another, and when completed, only one dialect has been learned. Then came the task of reading Chinese characters, not to mention writing them. Even the pagan Chinese knew that the Vincentians had a tradition of helping the poor and the orphaned. Our foreign Sisters, the Kukus, made heroic efforts to care for these arrivals and to find space for them in the crowded mission orphanage.
Then the Bishop said, "China distinguishes between a life spent for her people and a life spent merely living among her people. She knows of the heroism of this man, who came to plant the Cross of Christ in her midst."
Ringing the Angelus: Although there had been no priest in the city for many months, the sweet-sounding bell still resonated from its mud-brick tower in the little mission, where the gatekeeper, a faithful old Chinese Christian, tugged gravely at the rope. He was determined to preserve the beautiful custom of the Angelus, rung wherever Christianity had spread in China. At the sound of the bell, the chatter of the marketplace would stop and all converted peasants in the fields would bow their heads and sing: "The Angel of the Lord Declared unto Mary."
Until late into the night, we ministered to a growing crowd of Christians, simple farmers and townsfolk, who were anxious to make their long-delayed confessions. Here was evidence that a deeply rooted faith was spreading in China, fruit of the labors of missionaries who had come long before me.
There were native catechists at various outposts, but it was necessary for the priest himself to make visits to perform baptisms, listen to confessions, resolve problems and neighborly feuds, and play doctor as best he could.?
Pagan and Christian alike, the villagers feared to give us shelter because they knew this might expose them to terrible vengeance from the Communist bands. One woman, whom I had seen receiving gruel at the mission, turned us away with tears in her eyes. "I would like to help you," she said. "But I must think of my children."
For close to two years, I spent much of my time on horseback, bringing the faith to our outposts, and using medical skills to help heal the ailing and the feeble. My experiences formed a kaleidoscope of life and death, sickness and recovery, happiness and sadness.
The most inspiring thing about my work was the large number of Chinese I helped wean away from pagan practices.
Our school filled to overflowing, and the overcrowded mission buzzed like a beehive. Children chanting their lessons in unison, made a first-class racket most of the day. Peasant youngsters endured great hardship in order to attend our school. Many of these children came from far-off villages scattered throughout the district. Although they lived at the mission, they thought nothing of walking thirty miles to visit their homes. All Chinese, pagan and Christian alike, were anxious to benefit from the missionary schools. Free education was enough to stir up village folk to a high pitch of enthusiasm. The farmers also sent their children, but when planting and harvest seasons arrived we let the youngsters go home to help.
The Great Depression hit America, and hard times at home were drying up the stream of contributions on which the overseas missions depended. The Bishop cancelled all construction projects. We would have to make our present facilities do for at least another year. Even worse, we would have to cut down on our day-to-day expenditures by firing some of the Chinese teachers and reducing the number of catechists. Most heart breaking, we would be able to give the youngsters only two bowls of rice a day instead of three, converting the evening bowl of rice into gruel, a very poor substitute. I was brooding over the situation when my confrere handed me a letter. "I brought this up personally. It seems to be from your mother. There's nothing quite as wonderful as a letter from home."
My eyes raced over the familiar writing, but before I finished reading the first page of the letter, I felt a shock. My old friend Charlie Wong was gone, Mother wrote. He had a heart attack quite unexpectedly. He died behind the counter of his little laundry. Poor Charlie, he never returned to his beloved China!
I remembered how I had listened in fascination to Charlie's colorful stories and dreamed of becoming a latter-day Marco Polo. My eyes filled with tears as I thought of those old days in Brooklyn, and our visions of the exotic Orient. Now Charlie was gone, and my visions were gone, too. I was no Marco Polo; I was a weary priest struggling with poverty and a host of misfortunes that seemed too much for me.
Mission Impossible: I struggled into my cassock and walked to the church with the intention of saying Mass, but before I had donned vestments, a wave of nausea swept over me. I stumbled back to my room. Tropical flu plagued me for weeks, then one morning it left me as suddenly as it had come. I had been ill for six weeks.
There had long been a cry for the Vincentians to publish a magazine that would bring news of the China missionaries to their benefactors and friends back home. Since the Great Depression had made it more difficult than ever to obtain support for our work, this venture had acquired an urgent priority. Frequent reports from China seemed the best way to stimulate lagging contributions from America. It would be my job to write these reports and serve as the magazine editor.
The pastor was Father John Mcloughlin, from the American Vincentians, a burly giant of a man whose heart was as big as his body. He was a legendary figure among missionaries, one who went to China in 1921. Many of the old Chinese remembered how he had first traveled through the interior, bringing the charity of St. Vincent de Paul to areas where no white man had ever gone.
The Japanese gave no indication that they wanted control of the heart of China. In December, they put forward peace proposals, which would give them economic and military privileges in China's major cities. Presumably, this was all they were after. There was a respite in hostilities. We prayed for peace and prepared for Christmas.
As I gazed up at the crescent moon, I wondered: Had I done my job? Certainly, I have fallen far short of realizing all the dreams I had spun for myself when I first set out for the East. I had hoped to be ‘a knight in missionary garb,’ slaying the dragons of paganism, ignorance, and disease that ran rampant in this land. Instead, they shipped me out while my colleagues stayed on to continue the good fight.
Communist Rising Tide: Father Gehring kept hoping that the Communist rising tide might end in China, but it did not work out that way. That ominous cry of hate that the Communists had sounded when he was in China, "Tao-tsao-de-ku-chu-nee. Tao-tsao Jesu Chao" (Down with foreign imperialism, down with Christianity), had become their slogan all over this ancient country. Mobs were thundering it at public meetings. They painted this epithet against the missionaries in red letters on every church they took over.
The worst blow came when Padre learned that the Reds had overrun all of Kiangsi Province and had occupied the missions where he had served for seven years. They evicted Sisters and priests from the orphanages, schools and hospitals. From letters smuggled out to us, we learned that ailing youngsters in the orphanages and in the hospitals died for lack of care.
The Communist rulers maintained that they would not interfere with "strictly religious" practices, but this statement was a mockery with the arrest of beloved Bishop John O'Shea. He had just started Mass one winter morning in Kanchow, when Red soldiers burst in. They seized the Bishop, lined him up outside with five others from the hospital and school staff, and read a long indictment accusing "Ho Jo-wan,” the Bishop's Chinese name, of being a spy of the "imperialist" American government. They accused him of organizer of the "Legion of Mary" in Kiangsi Province. The Legion, they said, was a "subversive force."
They sent Bishop O'Shea to the local jail, in solitary confinement. His cell was tiny, five by eight feet. Only one thing comforted him. His jailers searched his pockets and trousers carefully, but somehow failed to locate a small ‘Miraculous Medal,’ which lay in his watch pocket. The medal, fashioned by the Blessed Mother of Christ, stayed with him and sustain him during months of imprisonment.
Summary & Conclusion: This is only a single true story of numerous episodes of devout Catholic missionaries who continue to give their lives for Christ and His Church, in support primarily of the pagan poor and illiterate natives, worldwide. This author has simply summarized three examples (see prior articles) of Catholic Missions. All Christians, especially Church leadership, should treasure such virtuous missionaries. They should not be disparaged, as “abusers of cultures,” or exploiters of “Mother Earth.” Otherwise, this would be a false assessment of history. The Church exists primarily to save souls, not to save human lives, or help humanity existence on earth.
See my articles on Linkedin, or www.fertigboooks.com , which covers summaries of ?a dozen books that I have written for society, with support from my dear wife, Miriam.
Christian martyrs: This is a list of reputed?martyrs ?of?Christianity ; it includes only notable people with Wikipedia articles. Not all Christian denominations accept all on this list as a martyr or Christian—see the linked articles for fuller discussion.