by Fr. Augustus Luca

Between Wars and Revolutions

period of relative peace followed the death of the Founder, but war broke out in 1937.  Japan had in fact started a systematic invasion, bring destruction and death everywhere.  The Chinese were hoping that the Yellow River would be a natural barrier for stopping the Japanese, but it did not worked out that way.  The Missions of the Xaverians was being assaulted, not by the Japanese, but by the refugees who had to escape a flooding of the Yellow River.  In fact, the Chinese broke the dikes in order to stop the advance of the Japanese, but were unsuccessful.  Tens of thousands lost their lives in this maneuver.

In 1938 bombs reappeared.  Chengchow, the residence city of the Bishop, was hit, and the cathedral destroyed.

In 1942, the missionaries were brought to a concentration camp because Italy allied itself with Japan.  Only a few of the missionaries remained behind to run hospitals.  On April 30^th, 1944, the Japanese arrived in the city of Hsuchang where Fr. John Botton and Fr. Ermanno Zulian resided.  They hid themselves in a cellar with a few of the Christians.  As the troops advanced, Fr. Botton decided to go outside and stop the launching of bombs, but a soldier shot him at close range.  He died, but the Christians were saved that day.

On October 27, 1944, Bishop Calza died in the hospital because of the extreme life conditions: he became very weak and ill, consumed by the daily sufferings, and overcome by the destruction of the mission.  “I will never see my own missionaries any longer” were his last words.

The Chinese-Japanese War ended in 1945 when the Japanese were defeated by the allies.  Soon after, over 30 Xaverians from Italy were sent to the mission in China.  The dioceses of Cheng-chow and Loyang were established.  Xaverians began a new mission at Ichun in Kiang-si.  A language center was opened in Peking and a novitiate house as well.  On March 13, 1959, three young Chinese priests entered the Xaverian Congregation: Louis Wang, Augustine Yang, and Simon Liu.  But new events put a question mark on the activity and life of their mission.

Between 1947 and 1950, communist troops took over the majority of China, followed by killings and trials.  The Catholic Church became the new enemy to the regime and many priests and bishops, religious and laity were imprisoned because they would not agree to belong to the patriotic Church of the Party.  Foreign missionaries were often imprisoned and tortured, brought to the tribunals of the people, and condemned to being expelled.  Many of the Chinese Christians paid with their lives.  The last of the Xaverians to leave China was the Bishop of Loyand, Mons. Assuero Bassi, who personally suffered 7 years of imprisonment and trials by the regime.

The missionaries knew well that their people were not at fault.  They felt victims of an ideology of immense proportions.  They left weeping, for they left their hearts in China, among the people they loved.  The missionaries always admired the traits of this centuries-old civilization, their deep sense of human bonding, their laborious skills and their patience. The Xaverians believed that these characteristics would overcome even the communist ideas.  But most of all, as they left the soil of China, they were overjoyed at seeing the witness of the Chinese Christians toward the new-found faith in Christ and his Church: “Love for life did not deter them from their death.” (Rev. 12:11)