Bishop "in Vinculis" of Shanghai
September 1984
Dear Bishop Ignatius,
On Sept. 7 you will begin your 30th year "in vinculis pro
Christo", in the Shanghai Communist Prison. In August, this
year, you have entered your 84th year of age. You have been a
Priest for 55 years, and of them 35 as a Bishop of the Church of
Jesus Christ, a short while in Soochow and the rest in Shanghai.
Almost half of your life in prison, in a long
"offertory" of yourself. A long "Holy
Sacrifice" in union with Christ on His Cross. By love of
Him. By love of His Church. By love of the Church in Shanghai,
which has been entrusted to you by the Vicar of Christ on earth:
the Bishop of Rome. And nothing has been able to shatter your
faith in the true Church of Christ. God knows and History will
know for ever that it is the only one true reason for your
incarceration.
For Jesus-Christ and for His Church, all along the centuries,
persecutors have given and published false reasons. But
"Truth" always prevails. The Martyrologium is full of
names of people who have been accused falsely by their
persecutors from Nero to Mao Tse Tung; thousands of them through
almost 20 centuries. Your name will be for ever among theirs.
Ignatius of Shanghai will be for China what Ignatius of Antioch
has been for the early Church in the Roman Empire. He has fought
strongly for Christ and His Church and has shed his blood. You
have fought for the same reason, and you have endured 30 years of
prison for Christ and His Church.
Going to his martyrdom Ignatius of Antioch refused any
compromise. You did the same from the very start of persecution,
when the Communist Regime tried to separate the Catholic Church
in China from Rome. Though you knew perfectly well what it would
mean for yourself and for the other Priests and Christians.
Like Christ tempted by Satan, who promised Him "all the
world" if He would summit himself to him, you refused the
promise of a "Patriotic Church" separated from Rome.
You knew it was "de facto" a "Schism". Your
strong faith and clear spirituality told you that absolutely no
reason, "sub specie boni", could be an excuse. For you,
"heroism" was not a simple "option" among
others. It was the call of Christ to all baptized people:
"Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my
footsteps is not worthy of me" (Math.10-37). And as
a good and loyal shepherd you taught it to your Christians.
You could not accept either the false reason a few Bishops and
some Priests tried. To keep some visible church and some
religious practice, at any cost! But at what price? To deny
publicly the bond with Rome! To consecrate ( and be consecrated )
Bishops, without the consent of Rome. Which, in the Canon Law,
brings "de facto" excommunication. Some of them
thought: "in my heart I stay faithful to Rome, but publicly
I speak otherwise....!" You could not accept that either.
You remembered Jesus telling: "All you need say is
"Yes" if you mean yes, "No" if you mean no;
anything more than this comes from the evil one."
(Matt.5-37). You knew perfectly well that the bond
between Christ and His Church is such, that you cannot separate
the Faith from fidelity to His teachings. Likewise you knew it is
impossible to separate Christ from His Vicar on earth. For you,
as for St. Catherina of Sienna, the Pope is "El dolce Cristo
della terra", the kind Christ on earth.
So, you refused the "Schism" and went to prison. Many
other Bishops and Priests went too. Your 30 years in prison
already, is, and shall be for the future, the true seed of the
Catholic Church in China. Others have already died. But thanks to
you all, the true Catholic Church goes on and develops on
Mainland China. Unseen by many. But really living and growing. It
is not the Patriotic Church. This is only the "Puppet
Show" from the atheist Regime, to destroy the true Faith in
China. But the true Church is you, the martyrs who have shed
their blood or their freedom to stay faithful to the only Church
of Christ, whose head is in Rome.
Your jailers may have shown to you some articles in some
magazines, in Europe or America, with wavering attitudes towards
the Patriotic Church. Some hesitate to speak of
"Schism". Some think a "double-attitude" may
be permissible "for some good"... Finally they seem not
to see any difficulty in having "two Bishops in Shanghai,
without calling the second one "usurpator" and
"schismatic".
But, dear Bishop Ignatius, don't be afraid. They are only a
"noisy minority". They are used to speak and to write.
Behind them there is a large "silent majority" that
your jailers will not let you know and hear. But we are with you.
We venerate you and those who, like you, have stayed faithful to
Rome, with the Christian heroism that cannot be challenged. You,
with them, are the only true Catholic church in China. You, with
them, have saved the honor of China, showing the true Christian
Patriotism; God and our faith above all. You, with them, are the
seed of the future. Not the "lapsi", the fallen ones.
Let us pray to God that He may "convert" them and bring
them back one day in the only true Roman Flock.
Chained like a prisoner and condemned to death, Ignatius of
Antioch in his way to Rome passed through different churches;
Ephesus, Smyrn, Philadelfia, begging each of them to accompany
him with their prayers, to strengthen his courage. "My
earthly desire has been crucified, and there is no longer in me
any ardor to love earthly matter. But there is a living water
that springs and tells me: "Come to the Father".....
Dear Ignatius of Shanghai, in the loneliness of your prison, the
evening of your life has begun. We strongly believe and fervently
pray that the Holy Spirit may tenderly whisper the same words to
your soul. We earnestly beg Our Beloved Mother of Zose, to be at
every moment with you with Her motherly Love and tender care. In
the free province of Taiwan, the Chinese Catholics follow your
steps and those of the glorious Martyrs of Mainland China: we
love and stay strongly devoted to the Holy Father in Rome. As He
told us, we try to be the "bridge" that will strongly
reunite the only "one" Catholic Church in China, that
of the Martyrs and that of Taiwan, when the rebirth of China
finally comes.
Dear beloved Bishop Ignatius, you will not read this letter on
earth. But through the Communion of Saints, in the Heart of
Jesus, sharing His Holy Priesthood, we keep united for ever, and
we shall meet again in Heaven. I was living in Shanghai when you
became Bishop. I was expelled against my will. Since I had hoped
to spend my missionary life in your Diocese, I have kept your
name in the Memento of my Masses, every day since then. In
spirit, I humbly kneel before you and kiss your episcopal ring
and the glorious chains of your martyrdom, begging your blessing.
Camille Graff, S. J.
Taipei
Bishop "prisoner for Christ" of Shanghai.
August 1985
Dear Bishop Ignatius,
Since my first "open letter" Sept 1984, the world has
been informed through the communication median that the Communist
Government has released you from prison "on parole"
after 30 years in jail. Of course, we have been told by your
jailer that you have "admitted your crimes". And as a
matter of fact, you have been given to the "Patriotic
Association of the Catholic Church" to be watched over,
under the responsibility of the Bishop - and his two Auxiliary
Bishops - who have usurped your episcopal Sea of Shanghai.
Although we were asked to believe that it is a
"liberation", no one is allowed to see you, except your
new jailer.
Dear Bishop Ignatius, once again the "scholars" and the
"diplomats" will see in this a "friendly
gesture" from the Communist Government. They will be ready
to forget the martyrs who have given their lives after years of
prison or labour camps, or are still prisoners like you. As I
told you in my first letter, they are the "noisy
minority", who fill magazines and newspapers with plenty of
"ways of compromising", disregarding completely those
with whom they are compromising, namely, a Government whose aim
is to destroy all religion and which has discovered that the best
means to do so is to create a "puppet Church",
separated from Rome, (that is: schismatic). This is the very
thing you have been refusing from the beginning and you have
spent 30 years in prison out of loyalty to this principle.
But once again I tell you that there is a "silent
majority" who see things differently. For us, your so-called
"release" is just like "Pilate handing Jesus over
to Herod" to get rid of him! No one of us, the "silent
majority"' believes that you have "acknowledged your
crimes", or "given your submission to the Patriotic
Church". So much so, that one of the Auxiliary Bishops of
the Patriotic Church, in Hong Kong a few weeks later, had to
acknowledge at a Press Conference that "actually you had
not"! So this is the explanation of your confinement after a
much publicized "release"!
Dear Bishop Ignatius, in the depth of our heart we are totally
with you in this new "ordeal". One more thorn has been
added to your crown. One more slap has been given to you. As with
Jesus, one more insult has been added. People laughed at Him
nailed on the Cross under the inscription: "The king of the
Jews"! And now, you, the only lawful Bishop of Shanghai,
faithful to the Holy See, have been given over to the one who has
usurped your place for more than two decades and to his two new
Auxiliaries, the three of them without "mandate" from
Rome and "excommunicated" according to Cannon Law No.
1382!
One of them is now going around the world trying to fool us about
the "freedom of religion" the Government of the
Communists is offering through the so-called "Patriotic
Church", with no communication with the Pope and always
"criticizing the Vatican" for its past and present
policy. This is a true "Puppet Church", a
"bait" to attract naive people.
But, dear beloved Father Ignatius, stronger than his vice, your
"silent voice of Prisoner for Christ" resounds in our
hearts. Not only to us here in the free Province of Taiwan, but
to all the "overseas Chinese" all over the world. Your
voice, like the one of St. Paul, reminds us to be faithful to
Christ, to His one Church, the Church presided over by Peter,
Bishop of Rome and his successors. Complete faithfulness to the
sea of Peter, the faithfulness of love, with no sense of
grievance or compromise and this until martyrdom when the time
comes.
With Paul to Timothy, (2 Tim. II 8 - 13), your silent voice of a
"Prisoner for Christ" tells us: "Remember
the Good News that I carry, 'Jesus Christ risen from the
dead...'; it is on account of this that I have my own hardships
to bear, even to being chained like a criminal - but they cannot
chain up God's News. So I bear it all for the sake of those who
are chosen, so that in the end they may have the salvation that
is in Christ Jesus and the eternal glory that comes with it. Here
is a saying you can rely on: If we have died with Him, then we
shall live with Him. If we hold firm, then we shall reign with
Him. If we disown Him, then He will disown us. we may be
unfaithful, but He is always faithful, for He cannot disown His
own self."
Dear Bishop Ignatius, we are sure that our Blessed
Mother of Zose is keeping you in Her tender care. With you we
pray to Her that She may keep and protect the "true"
Catholic Church in China, the one still martyred and in the
catacombs on the mainland, and the one still free and faithful to
Rome, in the Province of Taiwan. With you too, we pray to Her for
the poor people of the Patriotic Church who have gone astray,
"not knowing what they are doing..."!
May the Peace of Christ, the Love of the Father, the Light of the
Spirit be with you. Again, kneeling in spirit before you, I kiss
your episcopal ring and the chains of your captivity and I beg
your blessing.
Camille Graff, S. J
. Taipei