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Sister Helen’s
Silver Jubilee
Sister Helen O’Hara,
G.N.S.H., will join with her
family, community, parish
and friends on Saturday,
April 8th to celebrate her
silver jubilee.
Sister is a native of
Buffalo, New York and the
eldest of five children born to
Mr. Josenh O’Hara of Buffalo
SR. HELEN
and the late Isabel Reardon
O’Hara. Sr. Mary Margaret,
G.N.S.H., a blood sister, is
principal of Christ the King
School.
Since Sister Helen’s
profession at the Grey Nun
Motherhouse in Philadelphia
in August, 1947, she has
taught in schools in New
York, Pennsylvania and
Georgia.
For 15 years Atlanta has
been her home. She has
taught at Christ the King
School as Sr. Rosemary, at
St. Jude’s and she presently
teaches at Immaculate Heart
of Mary.
At a concelebrated Mass in
Immaculate Heart of Mary
Church, April 8 at 7 P.M.,
Sister Helen will renew her
vows and afterwards greet her
guests at a reception in the
parish convent.
All are invited to join in
the festivities.
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Because He Lives
Easter and Christmas perhaps have more influence on our
lives, as well as on our society, than any other Christian
celebration. Each has its own spirit, customs, historical
event to commemorate, religious and commercial
observance, but each celebrates the one, most basic truth of
our Faith - the one that gives meaning to everything we say
or do as Christians - the one that counts more than all
religious or commercial customs . . .
Jesus Christ lives! He lives today!
Regardless of the differences among us; regardless of our
search and struggles for meaningful ways of knowing and
living our faith; regardless of our human frailties and
mistakes; we Christians have meaning because He lives!
Because He lives in the Church, we are truly a
community of brothers and sisters; we have the assurance
of His Word; the communion in His Body and Blood; the
promise of His guidance; and the peace that only He can
give.
Because He lives in each one of us, we each have a
mission to witness to that life in whatever life-style and
life-situation we are found; whatever talents and
responsibilities we have; whatever demands are made on our
love. We have a special contribution to make to the world
in which we live: our family, place of work, neighborhood,
our circle of friends, our country and, yes, our world.
Because He lives, we have a message of life, hope, peace
and love to offer to the world: the Christian and the
non-Christian; the rich and the poor; the old and the young;
the oppressed and the oppressor.
Because He lives, we have missionaries in every walk of
life serving in whatever way is needed to bring this Good
News of Easter to others, especially the poorest and most
needful of help.
Because the Mission-Church is poor and the needs so
great, and because we believe in the witness and service the
missionary offers, we have the Society for the Propagation
of the Faith to help support these men and women in their
work for Christ. Today, over 135,000 missionaries depend
on this Mission-supporting Society to meet their most
essential needs. And since its beginning 150 years ago, the
Society depends solely on the contributions of individuals
to help meet this need.
Because He lives, we turn to you and beg for your
sacrifices and prayers. Because He lives - we live - and we
share in His mission however we are able. Every gift is
important and an expression of your love.
Please celebrate and share this Easter with those who
need to know that love by sending a generous gift for the
missions today . . .because He lives!
SALVATION AND SERVICE are the work of the Society
for the-Propagation of the raiih. Please cut out this column
and send your offering to Right Reverend Edward T.
O’Meara, National Director, Dept: C, 366 Fifth Avenue, New
York, N.Y. 10001, or directly to your local Diocesan
Director, the Rev. Jerry E. Hardv. 756 West Peachtree, N.W.,
Atlanta, Georgia 30305. March 30, 1972.
Name
Address
City State Zto...
Attractive, contemporary Mass cards are available through
the National Office or your Diocesan Director,
I
PAGE 7—The Georgia Bulletin, March 30.1972
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Newsmen Interview Catholic Priest In Peking
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WASHINGTON (NC) - Three
American news correspondents got a rare
chance to visit a Catholic church • in
Peking during President Nixon’s China
trip - and the priest they talked with gave
them a mixed picture of religious practice
cut off from the papacy, pledged to the
cult of Mao Tse-tung, yet still claiming
belief in Catholic doctrine.
Forrest J. Boyd, who covers the White
House for Mutual Broadcasting System,
described the church visit in the March 17
issue of Christianity Today, an evangelical
bi-weekly of 130,000 circulation
published here.
Boyd, a Presbyterian, said that he and
two of the Catholics among the newsmen
on the presidential trip - Hugh Mulligan
of the Associated Press bureau in London
and Hearst columnist Bob Considine -
were taken by an interpreter to interview
a Father Mu Jun-hua on the last day of
their stay in Peking.
The two-page list of places to be
visited, which all the newsmen had been
handed when they first arrived, did not
include any churches. Boyd asked
permission to see one, and his request was
eventually granted.
“The word-for-word transcript of our
recorded conversation with the priest
shows how difficult it is to get
information, how evasive and imprecise
the Chinese are in their answers, and how
impossible it is to reach a definitive
conclusion as to how much freedom of
religion there really is,” said Boyd in his
article in Christianity Today.
Although he was told there are both
Protestant and Catholic churches open in
China, he added, he was unable to learn
how many or where, nor could he learn
anything about Christians reportedly
imprisoned.
Father Mu was said to be over 40, the
man in charge of Peking’s oldest and
biggest church where services are held
daily, to have been ordained in 1956 by
the now deceased bishop of Peking after
training in a French missionary seminary
in Peking.
Part of the recorded conversation as
reported by Boyd in the magazine:
Q. - Is your prayer book in Chinese or
is it in Latin?
A. - At present we still use the Latin.
Q. - Despite the fact that the church is
not connected with the Vatican anymore,
is the belief and the order of service the
same?
A. - The religious ceremonies, our
services are the same.
Q. - Has Father been out of China?
A. - No.
Q. - Does the government allow
complete freedom of worship?
A. - There is complete freedom for
religious belief. It is stipulated in the
constitution.
Q. - Why are there no altar boys, no
little boys to assist at the services?
A. - Well, the educational undertakings
in China have developed considerably,
and at the age of seven, the children go to
school. In order not to hinder their
education, the parents don’t want them
to come here, to be what you call them,
altar boys.
Asked if he was aware that a famous
American bishop named James Walsh had
been a prisoner in China for some 20
years and had been released in 1970,
Father Mu replied that he had read an
item in the newspaper on the imprison
ment and later an item about the release.
“He used the priest’s cloak with
religion and carried out espionage
activities for the CIA,” the Chinese priest
added.
Q. - Does Father believe that?
A. - Yes.
Asked about Catholics imprisoned at
the time of the revolution in the late
1940’s, the priest said that “people with
ulterior motives” who had “spread
slanders” were arrested “not because of
their religious belief but because they
have carried out counter-revolutionary
activities. That’s why they were arrested.
And in our country there is full, complete
freedom of religious belief.”
Q. - Do the Chinese priests marry now
since the liberation?
A. - No, they do not marry.
Q. - How many come to church?
A. - If they come in big numbers, as
many as 500. But in times when there are
a very few people, just a few.
Q. - Mostly old people?
A. - More old people, and fewer among
the young people.
Q. - Do you know if there are any
Protestant churches in Peking?
A. - There are.
Q. - Do you know how many or what
the names are?
A. - We don’t know, but we know that
there are.
Q. - Father, do you feel as close to God
as, let’s say, a priest in Germany who has
his allegiance to the Vatican, or do you
feel like you are choosing a different way
to God?
A. - I believe in the Catholic doctrine,
and as you know, we love our great
leader, Chairman Mao, our motherland,
and also are led by the Communist party.
We regard this as proper. Those are the
things that we should do. And we regard
those foreign priests who have carried out
the work of subversive activities or
instruments toward the Chinese people,
those acts are not in conformity with the
Bible. We regard that what we have done
is more in conformity with the doctrine
of the Church as well as the Bible.
Boyd asked Father Mu how he feels
about serving the purposes of a
government whose announced doctrine is
atheism and whose leaders don’t believe
in the existence of what the priest says
Mass for. The answer was:
“Well, the Communists are atheists,
but this will not hinder us from our
contribution to the construction of
socialism. There are policies as
formulated by the Communist party that
provide for those people who believe in
religion, provide a freedom of religious
belief, so in this way we can construct
socialism together with the people of the
whole country.”
|
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V.
i
3
Easter In Peking-20 Years Ago
BY FR. HAROLD
RIGNEY, S.V.D.
(The following article is a true
story as remembered and narrated
by Fr. Harold Rigney, S. V.D., a
member of the Society of the
Divine Word, who at the time of
the events recorded here was
rector of the Fu Jen Catholic
University of Peking, China. He is
now president of the Divine Word
College, Epworth, Iowa, a
seminary of the Society of the
Divine Word.)
“Tomorrow we shall
execute 199 enemies of the
State,” shouted the police
official of the Red or People’s
Government of Peking as he
pounded his desk. “Do you
want to be number 200?”
Mrs. Wang, a frail,
tubercular looking widow and
mother of four little children,
stood before the desk of the
police official, shivering from
the cold and terrorized with
fright. It was around
midnight. She had been
arrested in late afternoon and
brought to the police
headquarters where she was
questioned throughout the
whole night, until dawn the
next morning. She was
shouted at, cursed,
threatened, and cajoled.
She was being pressured to
confess, truly or falsely, that
as my secretary, she knew
that I was carrying on
espionage for the U.S.
Government. Since, however,
I was not such a spy, and this
brave little woman was very
truthful, she remained firm in
denying any such knowledge.
She was arrested on the
Holy Saturday of 1951. The
next day was Easter. Such
feast days meant nothing to
the Communist officials of
Peking, but they often made
use of them to impress the
populace with their own
program. To execute 199 on
Easter Sunday, a day when
the Christians celebrated the
Resurrection of Jesus their
Lord, would be doubly
impressive.
In 1950 and 1951, about
200 poor Chinese were
executed publicly in Peking
every month. Very few of
them were hardened criminals
worthy of execution. They
were mostly people who
disagreed for one reason or
other with the Communist
government of Peking, and
therefore were enemies of the
State. They were executed
publicly to terrorize the rest
of the population. Most of
them first were thrown in
prison for months or years
where they underwent
brainwashing, as I was for
four years and two months.
Practically everyone in
Peking either had been in
prison or had a relative or
friend who was in prison. To
say that this was a Police
State would be an
understatement. It was a
Prison State.
Prisoners were arrested for
such “crimes” as criticizing
the Communist Party of
China, the Soviet Union, Mao
Tse-tung, or Joseph Stalin.
They were arrested for
distributing leaflets
announcing the Double
Tenty, (the tenth day of
October, the tenth month), a
day observed by the
Kuomintang or Nationalist
Party, the arch-enemies of the
Communists. They were
arrested for working for
American or British firms.
They spent a year or more
in prison during which they
were tortured, subjected to
sleepless nights, starved, left
in cold rooms, and
humiliated. They were finally
brought to court and
condemned to death.
I remember one case in
which a number were accused
of plotting to assassinate Mao
Tse-tung, a trumped up
charge. These poor
emaciated, dehumanized
prisoners were finally lined
up before the judge.
The first man, a German,
was acquitted. He was freed.
He was returned to civilian
life. How could anyone say
that the Communist
government was cruel when
they freed a prisoner?
The next one was a
Monsignor, a Prefect
Apostolic, an ecclesiastical
Superior of a Catholic
Mission, a very kind and
lovable man, who was
condemned to life
imprisonment. Other
sentences were passed and
then an Italian was
condemned to death. The
poor fellow had a wife and
four children and he went to
pieces. He fell on his knees
and begged for his life.
The last one was a
Japanese. I knew him, as well
as the Italian and the
Monsignor, and the German.
This Japanese had been an
officer of the Japanese Navy
during World War II in
Tientsin. He was a very good
man and at the time a
businessman. When he heard
of his sentence of execution,
he stood at attention and if
he was terrified, he did not
show it.
Soon after, these two
condemned prisoners were
placed with others on a truck
and driven down the main
streets of Peking where
everybody could see this and
other truckloads of “enemies
of the country” being taken
to their execution.
The poor people, when
they saw these trucks passing
on this Easter day, stood
frozen, terrified. They looked
at the faces of those on the
slowly moving trucks to find
a relative or a friend. If they
found one, they rushed to
their relatives and friends and
told them so-and-so was being
taken to execution.
The trucks carrying these
condemned prisoners arrived
at the Temple of Agriculture
outside the Imperial City, but
within the Chinese City,
where they were brutally
thrown off the truck. All of
them had their hands
handcuffed behind their
backs and had fetters around
their ankles. These handcuffs
were not bright, polished,
nickel-plated handcuffs, but
dirty, rusty, iron bands held
together by padlock. After a
prisoner wore them for a few
days, his arms swelled up and
his wrists, with the skin
rasped off, were very painful.
The fetters were also dirty,
filthy collars of heavy, rusty
iron, laden with many types
of germs. I knew one priest
prisoner who died of lock-jaw
which he contracted through
wearing these fetters. The
fetters were joined by an iron
chain about one and a half
feet long. When the prisoners
walked, the chain dragged
through the dirt ■ on the
ground. No shoe tops lasted
long with these fetters.
Stockings were torn to shreds
within minutes.
The condemned people
were practically thrown off
the trucks. There was a sign
protruding from their backs
on which Chinese characters
were written stating the
reason for their
condemnation and death
sentence. The poor, dazed
wretches were lined up, then
forced to kneel down. At the
back of each victim stood a
Communist soldier who
pointed a revolver at the base
of the brain. At the signal
from the officer in charge,
these soldiers fired and the
victims toppled over, dead.
I was told that as the
victims were trucked down
the streets of Peking, my
Japanese friend stood in the
truck at attention, showing
no fear. When this brave man
was finally brought to the
Temple of Agriculture, and
forced to kneel down, his
executioner was so unnerved
by his bravery, that he missed
his target. He either shot the
Japanese in the ear or missed
him completely.
With that, the brave
Japanese turned his head as
best he could and chided his
executioner for his
inefficiency. The now angry
executioner fired again, this
time hitting his target and the
brave Japanese fell over dead.
The soldier was so upset by
his humiliation and loss of
face, that he turned and
picked up a big boulder and
crushed the head of this
brave, dead Japanese. Later,
the wives of the Japanese and
Italian came with little carts
to carry off the bodies of
their dead husbands.
These two were executed
on that Easter which I have
always thought of since as the
Black Easter of Peking of
1951. There were 199
executed in Peking alone on
that day. My secretary almost
became the 200th.
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