A Real Martyr

by R. Elgin on September 12, 2007

An underground Catholic bishop in China has died in police custody. He was cremated six hours after dying and buried with no ceremony or priests.

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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Paul H. September 12, 2007 at 4:01 am: From the story it sounds as though he may have died of lung cancer rather than due to physical mistreatment by the police (emphasis on “physical” as he was “spiritually” mistreated by being denied access to the presence of a fellow priest on his deathbed).

I read the article because I was curious to see his personal background; he wasn’t ordained as a priest until he was 49 and that was after almost 20 years in a prison camp under the Mao regime. Born 1937, but the article didn’t say anything about whether he had been raised a Roman Catholic as a child, though I would presume his commitment to his childhood faith is what got him in a Mao prison camp in the first place.

I’m sure he’s been remembered already in a personal Mass said by the current Pope. An amazing story; you’d think the Communists would have stamped the non-state authorized RC church into the dust by now.

Maybe what they should do is allow all those Catholics access to the comments section of the Marmot’s hole, so they could “get their minds right”. But — I suppose such acess would be just as dangerous for the PRC Communist party domination in a secular sort of way.
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2 WangKon936 September 12, 2007 at 4:11 am: Lung Cancer huh? Just like all those Soviet dissidents who died in Lubyanka prison from equally innocent sounding diseases. A 9mm to the head- that’s a cerebral hemorrhage. Internal bleeding from too many punches to the gut- stomach cancer. Drowning from water torture- if you are young that’s a pulmonary infection of if you are old, lung cancer.
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3 sewing September 12, 2007 at 5:42 am: May he rest in peace.
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4 The Western Confucian September 12, 2007 at 9:31 am: “An amazing story; you’d think the Communists would have stamped the non-state authorized RC church into the dust by now.”

Amazing, indeed, but not uncommon. The Cardinal Kung Foundation is a good source of information about the underground Catholic Church in China.
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5 Paul H. September 12, 2007 at 11:29 am: Thanks for the link, here’s a selected quote:

– On December 12, 2000, Agency French Press reported that “authorities in eastern China have shut down, and in many cases blown up, 450 Catholic and Protestant churches, as well as Taoist and Buddhist temples.” Many more churches have been destroyed since then.

– On April 7, 2002, the National Catholic Register reported that “as many as 23,686 Christians have been arrested since 1983; 20,000 have been beaten; and 129 have been killed in an effort to stamp out the underground churches.”

http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/index2.html
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6 sanshinseon September 12, 2007 at 1:28 pm: R.I.P. to a good man.

The rulers of Beijing really gotta stop doin’ like this, gotta work their international problems out in a more sophisticated way, if they’re ever going to get the respect they seem to crave. Reconciling with the Vatican and a major trip to China by the Pope would be a very major boost for them, and cost them little in the long run. Ditto for dealing with the Dalai Lama before he passes on…
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