With this understanding of ourselves as members of the Body of Christ and, therefore, members of one another in Christ, we recognize our need both to identify with the suffering of our persecuted brothers and sisters of the underground Roman Catholic Church in China, and to offer our unceasing prayers for them. This is the purpose of the annual "coast to coast" Masses for the underground Church in China, beginning this coming September 30. Please mark your calendars.

The annual Masses assume greater importance in the light of recent developments as reflected in this Newsletter. You will not only read about the most recent persecution of the underground Church by the Chinese government, but also about the greater intensity and boldness with which the Beijing regime is carrying out this continued persecution. This greater intensity and boldness in persecuting the underground Church has been confirmed in two different ways and by two independent and opposed sources: indirectly by the Communist Party of China, and directly by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States.

According to the International Herald Tribune, (with some editing) "a startling new report from the China’s Communist Party’s inner sanctum describes a spreading pattern of ‘collective protests and group incidents’ arising from economic, ethnic and religious conflicts in China and says relations between party officials and the masses are ‘tense, with conflicts on the rise.’ This unusually frank report, produced by a top communist party research group and released quietly at the beginning of June, describes mounting public anger over inequality, corruption and official aloofness, and paints a picture of seething unrest almost as bleak as any drawn by dissidents abroad."

"This communist’s own report describes official corruption as ‘the main fuse exacerbating conflicts between officials and the masses... The report’s strong language suggests that the scale of demonstrations and riots has been greater than revealed, either by the official press or in reports abroad..."

This report, therefore, confirms Beijing’s more intense and bolder persecution of the underground Church as part of a wider and deeper problem of unrest and corruption permeating the entire country.

The Patriotic Association and the underground Roman Catholic Church are NOT the same church regardless of the remarks from His Eminence Cardinal Tomko!

At approximately the same time that the above report was issued, in a letter to China’s ambassador to the United States, His Eminence Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, chairman of the U. S. Catholic Conference International Policy Committee, registered a formal protest of the reported arrest of a "significant number" of Catholics in China. "By all accounts, there seems to have been a marked increase in the number and severity of actions taken by the State against many of our fellow Catholics in China, as well as against many other religious believers there," the Cardinal noted in his letter. "The denial of religious freedom," the Cardinal continued, "particularly to members of unregistered churches such as the several million Roman Catholics not affiliated with the Catholic Patriotic Association, has long been of concern to the Catholic bishops of the United States."

While we, of course, are disturbed about the greater intensity of Beijing’s persecution of the underground Church, it is somewhat encouraging that this is not taking place without notice. Our press releases carrying the most recent arrests of the underground Roman Catholic religious and lay persons that Cardinal Law mentioned in his protest to China’s ambassador were carried by all major news wire services and reported by major newspapers worldwide. The question arises: is this situation finally reaching a turning point for the better in a sense that the Church hierarchy is taking notice in public?

In the hope that this was the case, we wrote a letter of thanks to Cardinal Law, which is reprinted further on in this newsletter (Read now). As you will note from our letter to Cardinal Law, we made specific and constructive suggestions for the United States Bishops Conference to become more involved in educating the faithful in the United States about the suffering of the underground Church in China as well as about the truth concerning the Patriotic Association. We also specifically requested that the Roman Catholic parishes in the United States pray for the persecuted Church in China. (The Cardinal Kung Foundation offers a list (available here on our web site) of possible things to do in this regard, and we pray that the bishops will pursue them.) Our thinking was that the United States Bishops Conference is not only a leader in the Roman Catholic Church, not only a leading influence on United States politics, but also a friend of the underground Church in China. Thus, its support of the underground Church in China would make a major impact on the underground Church.

Unfortunately, our hopes were virtually crushed by Cardinal Law’s response, reprinted further on, to our letter of thanks to him (Read now). In the response that the Cardinal issued through Mr. Gerard F. Powers, Director of the U.S. Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace, not only is there no comment about our specific request for prayers and constructive proposals, but also a number of statements are made that are manifestly contrary to the facts. (We are especially deeply hurt that our request for prayers was not even acknowledged. We always believe that one effective way to help a friend is to pray for him.)

Mr. Powers states that the U.S. Catholic Conference "does not share the view that the bishops, priests, and faithful of the ‘open’ Church are nothing but willing pawns of the government, hostile to the Holy Father, or in schism." First of all, in all our writings, we have never called the "open" Church "willing pawns of the government and hostile to the Holy Father." Now that Mr. Powers suggests it, there is certainly a large element of the truth in it. If the so-called "open Church" -- more accurately, the Patriotic Association established by the Communist government of China in 1957 to replace the Roman Catholic Church -- is not hostile to the Holy Father, how shall we understand the fact that the Patriotic bishops passionately denounced the Holy Father’s canonization of the 120 Chinese martyrs on Oct. 1, 2000? If the Patriotic bishops are not "willing pawns" of the Communist Chinese government, how shall we understand their September 1995 pastoral letter in which they call upon all Catholics in China to "implement China’s Platform for the Development of Women formulated by the government," which, of course, includes the government’s mandatory abortion policy for families that exceed the one-child-per-family limit? As for the Patriotic Association’s being in schism, both the Patriotic Association’s own Constitution and the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church leave no doubt about it. The Patriotic Association’s own fundamental and explicit principle is autonomy from the Pope’s administrative, legislative, and judicial authority. The Church’s Canon Law (751) states quite unambiguously that schism is "the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."

This statement by Pope John Paul II is consistent with what his predecessors, including Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII, had promulgated ever since the Patriotic Association was established in 1957. Moreover, in His speech to China on December 3, 1996, Pope John Paul II exhorted the loyal Roman Catholics there that "today too all Chinese Catholics are called to remain loyal to the faith received and passed on, and not to yield to MODELS of a Church which do not correspond to the will of the Lord Jesus, to the Catholic faith, or to the feelings and convictions of the great majority of Chinese Catholics. From these models would come a DIVISION capable only of causing confusion, to the detriment both of the faith itself and of the contribution which the faithful can make to their homeland as instruments of peace and social progress."

The MODEL that the Holy Father referred to is apparently the Patriotic Association that, he said, has "strayed - in certain aspects - from the fullness of Catholic truth;" and the DIVISION that the Holy Father himself elaborated on is another proof that the underground Roman Catholic Church and the Patriotic Association could not possibly be "the same church" as Cardinal Tomko advocated. In addition, the Holy See’s 1988 official guidelines (Prot. 3314/88), issued to the world’s bishops through the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and concerning contact with the Church in China, continue to reflect the consistent statements of Pope John Paul II and his predecessors. These guidelines, issued, with Papal approval, by Cardinal Tomko himself, includes the instruction that "Another delicate point is the question of the liturgical celebrations.In fact all ‘communicatio in sacris’ is to be avoided. The ‘Patriotic’ bishops and priests are not to be invited or even allowed to celebrate religious functions in public, either in the churches or in the oratories of the various religious institutes." This was the directive that Cardinal (then Archbishop) Theodore McCarrick, while serving in 1998 as a member of a United States delegation to China on a fact-finding mission about religious persecution, was presumably observing when he refrained from ever celebrating Mass in a Church of the Patriotic Association while he was in China. Cardinal McCarrick said: "But I was not able to celebrate Mass in any of these (Patriotic Association) churches, in that they are not in full communion with the Holy See. I celebrated Mass every day of those 18 days in China in my hotel room." (30 Days. # 3, 1998) How could Cardinal Tomko suddenly advance the theory that the two Churches - the underground Roman Catholic Church and the Patriotic Association - are the same without rescinding the previous Papal statements and without rescinding his own guidelines? How could Cardinal Tomko advance the quoted statement to such a small audience of bishops, while leaving hundred of millions of other faithful in the dark about such a significant change in Vatican policy, indeed an about-face, without a world-wide pronouncement? To this date, we have not seen any official statement from the Holy Father that would authorize such an about-face.

If the "two groups" are really "all one Church" as quoted from Cardinal Tomko, why has Pope John Paul II still not recognized the Patriotic Association? If these "two groups" are really "all one Church," why is it that one of these "groups" - the underground Roman Catholic Church - is being persecuted and jailed for refusing to renounce fidelity to the Successor of Peter? Therefore, the statement that the enemies of the Church are "outside the Church" does not exclude those who openly support and even champion the Patriotic Association while the atrocious persecution of the underground Roman Catholic Church in China goes on and while the Patriotic Association is not recognized by the Pope, even though the Cardinal Kung Foundation and its friends unceasingly pray for the Patriotic Association’s return to the Universal Church, ruled by our sovereign Pontiff, so that China will return to "One Fold and One Shepherd." True ecumenism with the Patriotic Association? Yes. Establishing dialogue with the Patriotic Association? YesHowever, merging the underground Roman Catholic Church in China into the Patriotic Association as the Chinese Government is brutally forcing the underground Church to do so as to cut off Papal supremacy completely? NO! NO! NO!

Cardinal Tomko's quoted statement that the "two groups in the Church in China are not two Churches because we are all one Church", therefore, effectively notifies the suffering underground Roman Catholic Church that there is nothing wrong in joining the Patriotic Association, since it is "all one Church." In effect, the quoted statement encourages the underground Church to quit its unwavering loyalty and obedience to the Pope. Moreover, the quoted statement also gives a signal to the Chinese government that there will be no reappraisal or response from the universal Church for its brutal policy to force the underground Roman Catholic Church faithful to join the Patriotic Church. This certainly would gravely wound, most likely has already gravely wounded, the morale of the underground Church, as the same quoted statement has been advanced by other missionaries like Maryknoll for a long time.

From reading all these deeper implications of his statements, it is clear to any thoughtful reader that Mr. Powers’ statements and similar ones by members of the Church hierarchy only encourage the Communist Chinese government to continue its ever bolder and more intense persecution of the underground Church.

It is very sad to notice that most points discussed above are reflected in my open letter to the Vatican, dated March 28, 2000. Had this open letter been replied to and resolved by the Vatican, Mr. Powers would have a much better understanding of the China situation, and we would have been spared from the above misleading remarks from Mr. Powers. What we are very afraid of is that Mr. Powers, as an officer of the U.S. Catholic conference, will continue to spread the above mentioned misleading statements to other people, adding confusion to the public, who are already thoroughly confused about the Vatican’s Policy for the Church in China. Concerning this, we appeal to the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, not just to listen to third parties without inquiry, but to apply the Canon Law and Dogma of the Church to judge the Patriotic Association without any coloring by Real Politik. Martyrdom is the seed of the Church. If the Church encourages the faithful to bend according to the political winds as Cardinal Tomko’s quote indicates, where do we get more martyrs? Where do we get more seeds? I cannot help thinking about the analogy between what is being called by Cardinal Tomko the "very delicate situation" of the bishops of the Patriotic Association, who officially renounce fidelity to the Successor of Peter (the visible representative of Christ on earth), and the situation of the martyrs of the early Church. I wonder what those martyrs would have thought of fellow Christians who said: "We are personally devoted to Jesus Christ. However, given the very delicate situation, it is best that we officially renounce him."

Besides, Pope John Paul II has never given any indication that the bishops of the Church should be flexible in defending their faith when they are in a "very delicate situation" as Cardinal Tomko intimated. On the contrary, in his speech again on December 3, 1996, Pope John Paul II clearly stated: "The bishop must be the first witness of the faith which he professes and preaches, to the point of ‘shedding his blood’ as the Apostles did and as so many other Pastors have done down the centuries, in many nations and also in China......I exhort all the pastors and the faithful of China to express with courage and without fear the true profession of the Catholic faith, thus ‘speaking the truth in love’ (Eph 4:15)"

We want our readers to know that we interrupted and delayed the printing of this Newsletter for almost one month in order to give Cardinal Law an opportunity to remark on most of our reflections above, and to confirm that Mr. Powers accurately communicated the Cardinal’s thinking to us, as per our letter to him on June 25. We hoped to include Cardinal Law’s remarks in this Newsletter. We also requested a copy of the section of the Bishops’ Conference meeting that includes the complete text of Cardinal Tomko’s remarks that contains the aforementioned quote.

After waiting two weeks for a response from Cardinal Law, we received yet another letter from Mr. Powers on behalf of the Cardinal. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Powers’ second letter was essentially a repetition of his first. He offered no remarks from the Cardinal on our reflections above as we had requested. He expanded somewhat on Cardinal Tomko’s partially quoted statements, but the expanded version is essentially the same as what he quoted before. He noted that Cardinal Tomko gave a prepared speech prior to those remarks, but Mr. Powers did not send us the minutes of the Bishops Conference meeting that contains the text of that prepared speech as we had requested. Moreover, in spite of our special mention that "we are especially deeply hurt that our request for prayers could have been turned down by their not even acknowledging the request," Mr. Powers still did not say one word about praying for, or about supporting our plan for the annual Mass for the underground Church in China. We can only understand this silence in response to our request for prayers to be a refusal to pray for the underground Church in China. It is indeed very sad that the Church of the United States of America, which has reputably always loved China, has now even refused to answer our request for prayers; not once, but twice. This refusal leads us to conclude that the United States Bishops Conference is really either indifferent to or very misinformed about the situation of the Roman Catholic Church in China. Thus, even though many of the Conference bishops and their staff have advanced degrees in Theology and Canon Law, and would have known that Cardinal Tomko’s statement - that the underground Catholic Church and the Patriotic Association are "all one Church" - was very wrong, none of them raised any questions about it as far as we know. Even worse, the U. S. Bishops’ Conference appears to have unofficially adopted Cardinal Tomko’s statement as a definition of its own policy and has begun to disseminate it as such.

While we do respect the office of Cardinal Law and the United States Bishops Conference, we cannot allow that respect to deter the Cardinal Kung Foundation from one of its missions of making the facts of the underground Church and the Patriotic Association known. Therefore, in addition to the reflections contained in this Newsletter, we have written directly to Cardinal Tomko (with copies to Pope John Paul II, Cardinals Ratzinger, Cardinal Law, and Bishop Lori) with the request that he explain the contradiction between his statements, quoted above, and his homily of a little more than a year ago, also quoted above, and to verify, canonically and dogmatically, if he intended to state that the underground Roman Catholic Church and the Patriotic Association Church are one and the same Church. We asked him what his reaction would be if, logically in keeping with this statement, the underground Church surrendered to the Patriotic Association en masse. (Why should the underground Church continue to suffer the pain of persecution if Rome is advocating, through Cardinal Tomko, that the Patriotic Association is the same Church as the Roman Catholic Church?). We also asked Cardinal Tomko whether he realizes that, by merging the underground Roman Catholic Church into the Patriotic Association Church instead of the Patriotic Association’s reconciliation with and entry into the communion of the Roman Catholic Church, not only would Rome play into the hands of the Chinese Communists, not only would the Chinese government score a massive victory in its religious policy of eliminating the Roman Catholic Church, but also Rome would possibly lose the loyalty and obedience of tens of millions faithful in China who have suffered immeasurably for the Successor of Peter in the last 51 years. Rome would lose these Chinese faithful for a long, long time (decades or even centuries) before any reconciliation is possible, and would lose all ecclesial access to China, since, at that point, the Chinese government would have succeeded in accomplishing its original goal since 1957: eliminating religion, firstly by replacing the Roman Catholic Church with the Patriotic Association, and, secondly, by crushing the Patriotic Association to an ineffectual government body. Cardinal Tomko’s statement, quoted by Mr. Powers, unwittingly, we presume, proclaims this victory of the Chinese government. Isn’t the real "tail of the wolf" - which the Chinese communist government has tried so hard to conceal for the last 51 years - of eliminating religion becoming more visible? Finally, since the Holy Father or his official spokesperson has never made any statement that the Roman Catholic Church and the Patriotic Association Church are the same Church, we once again ask, as we did in our Open Letter of March 28, 2000: what is the official position of the Holy See on this matter?

In a letter to the United States Bishops Conference, the Cardinal Kung Foundation has both formally expressed its deep concern to the Conference’s handling of the aforementioned matters and called for the Conference to make an official statement about its position regarding the relationship between the underground Church and the Patriotic Association instead of merely quoting Cardinal Tomko’s statement.

Equally regrettably, alongside the above sad events, Zenit news service reported on June 14 that "Cardinal Etchegaray has been honored for his work in promoting relations with China" and "was awarded the Vittorino Colombo Prize, named after a politician who founded the Italian-Chinese Institute. The Basque-French cardinal was the representative of the (Roman) Catholic Church who was received by the People’s National Assembly, in Beijing in 1981, and the first cardinal to celebrate Mass in public in a Chinese (Patriotic Association) cathedral." Cardinal Etchegaray’s public Mass in a Patriotic Association cathedral is certainly contrary to the "China guideline" issued by Cardinal Tomko mentioned above. This is the kind of news that breaks the heart of the underground Church in China.

In any case, like the parish in Michigan that you will read about on page 8, we all need to intensify and embolden our own prayers and efforts for our persecuted brothers and sisters in China. From my own experience, I have learned over and again that more than 95 percent of the faithful are unaware either of the difference between the underground Roman Catholic Church and the communist Chinese government-created Patriotic Association, or the intensity with which the Chinese government persecutes the underground Church. This is why it is so urgent that we multiply our efforts in reaching out to as many of the faithful as possible.

Another example of an extraordinary effort like that of the Michigan parish is a family’s recent visit to the underground Church in China. As you will learn from reading their personal testimony on page 7 of this Newsletter, this visit left no question in the mind of this family concerning the truth about the Catholic Church in China.

On June 8 - 10, I was invited to speak at the Marian Congress in Alexandria, South Dakota. It was sponsored by Rev. Robert Fox of the Fatima Family Apostolate. More than 1,000 people came. During the Congress, His Excellency Bishop Carlson dedicated a new Shrine to Martyrs of the 20^th Century. At the Shrine, there is a plaque with a special mention of the late Cardinal Kung for his heroic, faithful, and loyal service to the Church and for his 32½ years of imprisonment. I was invited to speak briefly during the dedication of the Shrine about the persecution in China. I also spoke for approximately an hour during the conference about the underground Church and the late Cardinal Kung. More than 95 percent of the people heard about the persecution in China for the first time and responded enthusiastically to the work of the Foundation. Many pledged their prayers and financial support. Hundreds came to visit our exhibits. Almost every attendee went home with something from the Cardinal Kung Foundation. This Congress is different from others in that it has a lot of prayer services. It was very spiritual, educational, and entertaining.

Finally, on August 2, according to Chinese custom, we will observe the 100^th birthday of the late Cardinal Kung. Let us all thank God for the life and witness of Cardinal Kung for his tremendous grace that he brought to the Church in China as well as in the universal Church. Let us all pray for/to him and ask for his intercession for our needs.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Joseph Kung, President

"Coast to Coast" Annual Masses
E-Mail Evangelization
Second Class Relic

Please reserve the Sept. 30 date for this Mass in your community, and confirm with us your participation. We hope that at least 500 parishes across this country will join us for this annual Mass....To evangelize by email, please email us at the Cardinal Kung Foundation (jmkung@aol.com) and we will send you a prepared message that you in turn can send to all your friends and associates. The prepared message includes a brief description of the persecuted Church in China, and an invitation to visit the Foundation’s web site....Second Class relics for Cardinal Kung are available upon written request. I strongly recommend that you make reverent use of the relic and handle it with care and respect. (For details, please refer to our Christmas 2000 newsletter.) In the event that you receive a favor, no matter how small it is, or a miracle from Cardinal Kung, you have an obligation to make it known. As the Cardinal is not yet an officially proclaimed saint, there must be a purpose for God to grant your favor or miracle through Cardinal Kung’s intercession. These favors and miracles should be officially documented for Cardinal Kung’s cause, which is being assembled by the Cardinal Kung Foundation.

I write to express my deep and sincere gratitude for your recent letter to China’s ambassador to the United States that registers, on behalf of the Catholic bishops in the United States, a formal protest of the reported arrest of a significant number of Catholics in China. I can assure you that your letter will certainly be a source of consolation and support especially for the underground Roman Catholic Church in China.

According to our information, the Beijing regime’s persecution of the underground Roman Catholic Church has not only been carrying on for the last five decades, but also that this persecution has recently taken on a greater degree of intensity and boldness.

For example, Father LU Genjun, 39 years old, an underground Roman Catholic priest, was arrested about two months ago shortly before Easter in Baoding, Hebei. The Cardinal Kung Foundation received a copy of the Sentencing (Decision) Statement (copy attached) dated April 13, 2001, Good Friday, issued by the Reform Through Labor Management Committee of the Baoding city government in Hebei Province sentencing Father LU to three years of labor camp. The statement clearly listed Father LU Genjun’s "crime" as his 1) receiving theology training, 2) being ordained a Roman Catholic priest not recognized by the Hebei Patriotic Association Catholic Administration Committee, 3) refusing to recognize the Patriotic Association, and 4) conducting evangelization activities.

In the past, the Chinese government had given a variety of bogus reasons for arresting members of the underground Roman Catholic Church. Usually, the reasons were indirectly related to the clergy’s or the laity’s membership in the underground Church, such as illegal gathering, disturbing the civil order, and etc. However, as this particular Sentencing Statement for Father LU makes clear, the government now directly relates these arrests with membership in the underground Church. Clearly, the Chinese government has become bolder and more direct in its condemnation of the underground Roman Catholic Church. This seems to suggest that the Chinese government does not expect reprisals either from the Universal Church or from the international community in general. This is why your recent letter to China’s ambassador to the United States is so important and so timely.

Your Eminence, may I suggest, and may I also offer the services of the Cardinal Kung Foundation for, the development of a program for educating the faithful in the United States about China’s ongoing persecution of the Roman Catholic Church in China, and about the important historical, theological, and canonical differences between the Roman Catholic Church in China and the Patriotic Association. In my own travels and conferences with groups, both clerical and lay, throughout the United States, I have discovered that very few are aware of the intensity of the persecution of the Roman Catholics in China and that even fewer are aware of the fact that the Patriotic Association, at the very foundation of its own constitution, renounces all fidelity and obedience to the Successor of Peter.

Your Eminence, in recent months, the Cardinal Kung Foundation has been trying to encourage its supporters throughout the United States, beginning this coming September 30, to offer Masses on the last Sunday of September as the annual day for offering Mass for our persecuted brothers and sisters of the underground Church in China. I believe that it would be a great expression of solidarity as well as a great spiritual benefit for both Catholics in the United States and Catholics in China. Of course, I would be most grateful for anything that you could do to help us advance both this annual Mass among Catholic parishes in the United States, and the offering of prayers for the persecuted Church in China during the Prayer of the Faithful at all Masses every day, especially on Sunday.

I thank you once again, Your Eminence, for your courageous letter to China’s ambassador to the United States, and I thank you for your consideration of the items described above.

Yours sincerely in Christ,
Joseph Kung

His Eminence, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, Chairman of the USCC Committee on International Policy, has asked me to acknowledge your letter to him of June 6, 2001.

Thank you for your kind words concerning the Cardinal’s recent letter to the Chinese Ambassador in Washington. With you, I too hope it may be of some consolation and support for the Catholics in China, both those of the "underground" as well as in the "open" Catholic Church in China.

As I believe you know, while the U.S. Catholic Conference has for many years been outspoken in denouncing violations of human rights and especially religious freedom in China, it does not share the view that the bishops, priests and faithful of the "open" Church are nothing but willing pawns of the government, hostile to the Holy Father, or in schism.

In speaking to the U.S. Bishops at their recently concluded meeting in Atlanta, Cardinal Jozef Tomko referred to the two groups in the Church in China, not "two churches because we all one Church," noting that the bishops there face "a very delicate situation." "Where is our true enemy? Not inside the Church but outside the Church," he added.

Let me assure you that we will continue to monitor closely the situation of religious freedom in China as elsewhere around the world, and will continue to take both public and private actions on behalf of our suffering co-religionists and others as we are able to.

With thanks again for your letter and wishing you all the best, I am

Sincerely yours,

Gerard F. Powers, Director, Office of International Justice and Peace

Report of Recent Persecution: Signs of Beijing’s Greater Boldness

This past April, in Fujian, Hebei, Jiangxi and inner Mongolia, the Chinese government arrested a number of underground Roman Catholic clergy and laity: two bishops, many priests, and some thirteen lay people.

Bishop SHI Enxiang, the underground Roman Catholic bishop of Yixian, Hebei, was arrested while visiting in Beijing on April 13. Bishop SHI is 79 years old and was ordained a bishop in 1982. He was previously in jail for about 30 years. He was last arrested in December 1990 for three years and released in November 1993. The authority tried to arrest him in 1996, but failed, as Bishop SHI escaped. He was in hiding ever since until his arrest on April 13. In addition, Bishop Mattias Pei, 83, underground bishop of Beijing, was also arrested in early April according to the FIDES agency.

Father LI Jianbo of Manchang County, Hebei, was arrested on April 19 in the City of Xilinhaute, inner Mongolia. He is 34 years old and was ordained a priest in 1995. Father Yin (full name not known) was arrested in Qingyuan County, Hebei in January, 2001. He was sentenced in April to labor camp for three years. was arrested on Good Friday, April 13 in Fu An City, Fujian. Father Liao Haiqing, in his early seventies, was also arrested on Good Friday April 13 in Fuzhou, Jiangxi. He has now been released. Thirteen other underground Roman Catholic lay persons were also arrested on Good Friday April 13 in Linchuan, Jianxi. Their status is not known.

Father LU Genjun , 39 years old, was also arrested shortly before Easter in Baoding, Hebei. Father LU was last arrested three years ago on Palm Sunday, April 5, 1998 and detained for a short time. Arrested with Father LU were three other underground Roman Catholic priests.

The Foundation received a copy of the Decision (sentencing) Statement dated April 13, 2001, Good Friday, issued by the Reform Through Labor Management Committee of the Baoding city government in Hebei Province sentencing Father LU to three years of labor camp. For more details of this Decision Statement and its ramifications, please refer to the third and fourth paragraphs of the letter that I wrote to Cardinal Law.

SHARING THEIR SUFFERING:
A FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE OF THE PERSECUTED CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHINA

(This written account is synopsized and the author’s name is withheld in order to protect the identities and locations of those involved.)

During our family’s stay in China, we had the opportunity to step inside the "world" of the underground Roman Catholic Church, and to experience for ourselves its complete lack of religious freedom and constant fear of arrest.

We spent some time with an underground Bishop, who had already been in jail for many years. When visiting with us or celebrating Mass for us, he was always surrounded by secrecy because just being with a foreigner, there was an apparent intensive fear in this bishop. (Editor’s note: It is illegal for an underground faithful to be seen with a foreigner.)

We accompanied this Bishop on a train to visit some underground religious. Even while traveling with him, we would not stand with him in public because, as foreigners, we would have attracted too much attention. When we arrived at our destination, further precautionary measures were taken so as to protect the secrecy of the religious location. After passing through several camouflaged doors, we arrived at the room where Mass was to be celebrated by the bishop with an underground local priest, and attended by some 20 people. Following Mass and a brief period of Adoration, the Bishop displayed pictures that we had brought from the Cardinal Kung Foundation, and then, in another room close by, introduced us to some 15 other religious. After a meal with the family who had originally led us to the religious location, we left in the same secretive way, and, at approximately 5 PM, embarked upon our drive back to where we were staying.

The drive back challenged us by freezing temperatures, a language barrier (the bishop spoke only Chinese, and we, only English), and a few incidents, each of which forced our van to come to a complete stop and made us fearful for the safety of the Bishop. Although we could do nothing about the lack of heat in the van, we overcame the language barrier by praying some 15-20 rosaries, and we spent the time delays by teaching the Bishop the Hail Mary and Sign of the Cross in English. We finally arrived back at where we were staying at approximately 12:30 AM. At this point, we were exhausted, and we vowed not to go on another adventure like this ever again, or at least until we had gotten over this one.

The next day, after breakfast, we found some visitors waiting for us. They included an underground religious who had come from another city that we wanted to see. However, this other city was hours away. Moreover, even if we could visit the underground families only during the evening hours to avoid the danger of being caught, we broke our vow of the previous night and embarked on another trip. This second trip turned out to be even more challenging and dangerous than the first.

Following this train trip, we walked to an isolated area where we were taken by cars for another journey. At approximately midnight, the drivers let us off several blocks away from our destination so that the drivers would not know where we were going. We walked the rest of the way in freezing temperatures until we arrived at the room of the local underground Bishop. The room was very bare, and had no heat; and the Bishop wore a heavy coat and hat. Keeping our coats on as well, we enjoyed our one-hour visit with the Bishop while his helpers brought us bowls of warm soup. After our visit, the Bishop brought us to visit a few underground families living together with many children. Although they had been sleeping, most of them awoke when we entered. There were mostly two, three, and four people to each simple iron bed, and they were covered with heavy blankets and warm clothing. One boy stood out. He was crippled and chose to fast daily. He wore a big smile on his face while we visited with him. We actually considered him to be a saint and asked him to pray for us. Following our visit with the families, we witnessed the house’s poor conditions including a toilet area consisting of nothing but holes in the ground, and sparse medical supplies contained in one white metal cabinet. Finally, we left the families by van at approximately 2 AM.

The journey by van took two hours longer because of the heavy rain. During the wee hours of the morning, we got onto the next train back. The train ride seemed endless because, for the great part of the ride, there was no place to sit or even sleep and barely any place to stand in the overcrowded train. We were so happy when the train arrived at our destination. We went home and slept the entire day, grateful to God for his protection during both our trips.

As we think about our way of life in the U.S, we can hardly believe how the many underground Catholics in China live in the cold, with the bare minimum in food, shelter, and clothing, and in secrecy so that they can practice their religion without interference by the government. We admire their courage. They remind us of the persecution of the early Church. For us in the U.S., this might seem unimaginable and unreal. However, we can tell you first-hand that these conditions do exist in China, and that these faithful Catholics in China are suffering in many ways so as to keep their faith alive. We in the U.S., who are more fortunate materially, need to help them in every way possible with everything they need, from the needs of mere existence to the requirements of their mission of spreading the Gospel message.

MICHIGAN PARISH HOSTS CARDINAL KUNG FOUNDATION

Dear Fellow-Catholics,

Every year our parish, Ss. Cyril and Methodius, plans a Lenten program through the department of Christian Service. The aim is to direct our parishioners and the friends who frequent our parish toward two or three worthy charities that have come to our attention. Since Lent is a time of prayer, penance and almsgiving, we encourage those who wish to participate to give in a spirit of charity and sacrifice.

This year, Lent 2001, our program was called "Our Suffering Brethren." Our second speaker, invited two weeks after the first, was Mr. Joseph Kung, who would tell us about the state of the true Catholic Church in China and the deplorable conditions and lack of human rights found there.

Mr. Kung arrived with his wife, Agnes, on a Saturday afternoon with boxes of easels and a very informative photo display. These were set up in our foyer-gathering space in time for the Saturday evening Mass. Mr. Kung spoke for about 10 minutes after Holy Communion for each Mass and people mingled for quite awhile after the Mass to read the posters and ask the Kungs questions. This was repeated after the three Sunday Masses.

On Saturday evening, Mr. Kung made another presentation to those who responded to our bulletin and local newspaper invitation to join him for a talk and discussion. Mr. Kung and his delightful wife, Agnes, did not disappoint the attendees because Mr. Kung not only gave an excellent talk with facts and statistics about China, but he also explained who Cardinal Kung was and how he heroically maintained his allegiance to the Holy Father while imprisoned for 32 ½ years.

People seemed spellbound by what they heard and were reluctant to leave. During the question and answer period, someone asked Agnes to answer questions as well, and even to sing a song in Chinese for them, which she and Joe graciously did! As people left the talk that evening, comments were heard about how much they had learned about the political situation and the state of their suffering fellow Catholics in China and how glad they were that they had come. We made 50 tapes of Mr. Kung’s speech available for a donation and every single one was taken!

I am happy to report that our small parish of not quite 550 families donated a total of $20,989 to the Cardinal Kung Foundation to be dispersed for training underground seminarians in China, for Mass stipends and for the Foundation’s general fund which is used to aid struggling Chinese priests in the free world and to further its work.

Respectfully submitted, Mary Ann Zink, Chairperson, Christian Service

Editor’s Note: The success of the visit described above was further advanced by the parish’s announcement of our visit several weeks ahead of time and in a variety of ways: news articles, leaflets, brochures, and Sunday bulletins. The parish also prepared specially printed donation envelopes for the occasion. Parishioners were invited to use the envelopes for several weeks both prior to and following our visit. In his homilies, the pastor reminded the congregation of the upcoming visit, and linked these reminders with brief reflections on the persecuted Church in China.

Volunteers Needed

We need volunteers for helping our web master to upload English and Chinese documents, cataloging documents, filing and scanning them into the computer, typing Chinese documents, dbase programming, and doing clerical work. Our office is being renovated slowly by yours truly, and should be completed by end of August. If interested in and available for this volunteer opportunity, please contact Joseph Kung as soon as possible. Stamford CT residence is not necessary if you have a computer.

Please Remember The Cardinal Kung Foundation Incorporated In Your Will.
Thank You.