As we greet the first Spring season of the new millennium, we prepare to commemorate two important anniversaries - the passing of His Eminence, Ignatius Cardinal Kung, and the issuance of our Open Letter to the Holy See on March 28, 2000.

MEMORIAL MASS FOR HIS EMINENCE, THE LATE IGNATIUS CARDINAL KUNG

We shall soon be in prayerful remembrance of His Eminence, Ignatius Cardinal Kung, who died March 12, 2000. On the occasion of the first anniversary of his death, Rt. Rev. Msgr. John Horgan-Kung, the Cardinal’s confessor who adopted the name Horgan-Kung after the death of the Cardinal, shall offer a traditional Latin Memorial Mass (Tridentine Rite) for the late Cardinal on Sunday, March 11, at 2 PM at St. John the Evangelist Church in Stamford, Connecticut. Msgr. Eugene Clark, a Director of the Board of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, the newly appointed Rector of St. Patrick Cathedral in New York City and the previous pastor of St. Agnes Church in New York City, will deliver the homily. Refreshments will be served after the Mass. You are welcome to attend and participate. If you plan to attend, please let us know at the address on this letter head so that we could estimate the attendance.

RELICS OF CARDINAL KUNG

We received many requests for Cardinal Kung’s relics. We are now in the process of working with a vendor to prepare the relics for distributions. These relics will be helpful in praying for the canonization of Cardinal Kung.

CLARIFICATION OF THE FOUNDATION'S WORK FOR THE CARDINAL'S CANONIZATION

It has come to our attention that many people are under the impression that the Cardinal Kung Foundation has an officially authorized cause for the canonization of Cardinal Kung. Please note that we are not aware of any application submitted to the Holy See for the cause of Cardinal Kung. In any case, the Holy See has not authorized such a cause. Rather, the Cardinal Kung Foundation has been granted permission by His Eminence Paul Cardinal Shan to begin collecting information with a view to a future officially authorized cause for the Cardinal’s canonization.

In connection with the Foundation’s efforts to collect pertinent information in support of Cardinal Kung’s canonization, I urge those of you who had contact with Cardinal Kung during his life to provide us in writing with any information about the Cardinal that you think might be pertinent. Contrary to what some people have thought, you do not need to wait for a miracle through the intercession of the Cardinal to occur before sending us any pertinent information. The cause for the canonization of any person, in addition to any miracles attributed to that person’s intercession, also considers the person’s personal sanctity. Thus, it would be most important for you to send us now any information about the Cardinal that could serve as witness to the Cardinal’s sanctity. If you believe that your life and faith have been touched in a significant way by Cardinal Kung’s ministry, his witness to the gospel and his dedication to the successor of St. Peter, this is a unique opportunity for you to be a witness to his sanctity for his canonization. All the friends of the Cardinal and the persecuted Church in China will be most grateful to you. Please do so without delay.

Those who need a copy of the Guide for Reporting the personal sanctity of Cardinal Kung and an Extraordinary Cure and a copy of the Prayer for the Canonization of Cardinal Kung, all printed in our Christmas 2000 issue of newsletter, please contact us or you may view it here.

THE NEW EVANGELIZATION

As most of you know, Pope John Paul II has called for a "New Evangelization" for the new millennium. If I understand the Holy Father correctly, the "New Evangelization" includes, not only new ways and methods of preaching the Gospel, but also a new conscientiousness about the universal scope of preaching the Gospel. Many times I have noticed, even among the Catholic leaders in the United States, both clergy and laity, a preoccupation with the many challenges facing the Church in this country, but to the detriment of their attention to the universal Church, especially in those parts of the world that seem so remote and different from the United States, and where the Church suffers in ways that we Americans cannot even begin to imagine. One of these seemingly remote places, of course, is China, where the Church has been forced "underground" and continues to be persecuted for her fidelity to the Successor of Peter.

Calling on Catholic Leaders in the United States

This past Fall, I attended the Catholic Leadership Conference and had the opportunity to meet with approximately 100 Catholic leaders from all over the United States, and to propose to them to make the persecutions of the underground Roman Catholic Church in China a major topic of the 2001 conference. I also sent to each of them on November 8, 2000 a copy of my Open Letter to the Holy See of last year, and made specific proposals to these leaders about joining our efforts in helping the underground Church in China. Thus far, besides about 5 participants who had already read and expressed support to my Open Letter before the Conference, I have received only one oral and one written response from these Catholic leaders. I hope to hear from many more in the coming weeks. If you are a member of any Catholic organization, please propose to your organization to support the persecuted Roman Catholic Church in China, through prayers and actions in the spirit of the New Evangelization.

First Anniversary of the Open Letter to the Holy See

In the meantime, we commemorate the second of the two anniversaries that I had mentioned at the beginning of this letter. It has been approximately one year since I sent my Open Letter to the Holy See, and have not received any official response. My hope is that the spirit of the "New Evangelization" will permeate the entire Church in all her dimensions, works, and members so that this Open Letter will receive due attention and finally receive a response from the Holy See, either directly to the Foundation or in the form of an Official Directive on the topic of "contact with the Patriotic Association and the persecuted Roman Catholic Church in China." Please join us in prayers for the underground Church. If you would like to have a copy of this Open Letter, please let us know (or view it online here).

TWO ADDITIONAL EFFORTS FOR THE NEW EVANGELIZATION

"Evangelizing by Email"

This will involve your participation in sending to your friends and associates an email message prepared by the Foundation. The message is a brief description of the persecuted Church in China, the Foundation’s efforts in assisting the underground Church, and an invitation to your friends to visit the Foundation’s web site, a link to which will be included in the prepared message. Also, we urge you to exhort your friends to send the same message, in turn, to their friends, so that the message continues to spread out to as many people as possible. In this way, we hope to advance the conscientiousness about the universal Church to as many people as possible, and more particularly to inform them about both the suffering of our brothers and sisters in China and ways in which they can come to their aid. If you are interested in participating in this new program, please email us first. Our reply to you will include the message and the link to our site. You can then copy our reply and start emailing it to your friends. You would need only to type in the email addresses and your other personal messages, if any, to your friends.

"Coast to Coast" Annual Masses for the Underground Church in China

Our second new effort for the "New Evangelization" also involves your participation. We would like to develop into a tradition from coast to coast in this country, and, if possible, around the world - in as many parishes as possible - the celebration of an annual Mass for the persecuted underground Roman Catholic Church in China. This would involve you and/or your groups’ efforts to have a Holy Mass offered in your parish with the special intention of the persecuted underground Roman Catholic Church in China. The stipend of this Mass is to be donated by you directly to your parish.

We would like to establish the last Sunday of September of each year - the Sunday closest on the calendar to the national day of the communist China - as the annual date for these Masses. If you are of the opinion that the pastor is knowledgeable about the ongoing persecution of the Roman Catholic Church in China, please ask him to say a few words about the persecutions during his homily and/or during the prayers of the faithful. We would like to see these Masses celebrated beginning this coming September 30, 2001.

As the calendars for Mass intentions in most parishes are reserved many months in advance, we urge you to contact your local pastors immediately. Also, we recommend that, at the very same time that you visit your pastors about this Mass, you schedule the Mass on the last Sunday of September of the following year 2002, and continue this practice for the years to come. If you are able to accomplish this, please let us know as soon as the Mass is accepted by your Pastor so that we could tally the number of the churches participating the effort. It would also be helpful if you could arrange to send us each year a copy of your parish bulletin in which the announcement of this Special Mass for the underground Catholic Church in China is published. In return, we would send you brochures and other pertinent material about the suffering Church in China for you to distribute in the parish on the day of the Mass, with the permission of the pastor.

We hope that thousands of parishes will celebrate Mass on the same day for the persecuted Roman Catholic Church in China in the hope that the media will pick up the story and publicize the plight of the underground church. In this way, we can multiply both the prayers for and the awareness of the underground Catholic Church in China. Come, be the voice for the underground Church and assist us to launch this program. Please contact your pastor as soon as possible and keep us informed of your effort. May our Lady of She-Shan bless you for your effort.

THE ONGOING AND INTENSIFYING CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH

AFP (Agency French Press) reported on December 12 that "Authorities in eastern China have shut down, and in some cases blown up, 450 Catholic and Protestant churches....." A spokesman of Chinese Government explained that "In order to maintain ‘social stability’, the local government demolished underground churches.....These organizations were operating under the cloak of religion. They hoodwinked people, interfered in normal religious activities." The Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy, a Hong Kong group, says about 1,200 temples and churches have been demolished or shattered in the province of Zhejiang since late 1999.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation has been reporting the destruction of the underground Roman Catholic Church since 1994. The newly reported destruction of the Churches did not start recently as many people were led to believe from this news article. It has been happening for many years, and has continued to intensify. Was it a mere coincidence that there was massive destruction of the churches and temples in the last quarter of 2000 soon after the American government granted China full trade partner status in September 2000?

As part of the government’s pre-Christmas harassment of Christians last November, a priest, five nuns, and several seminarians and lay people from the underground Catholic community were detained as they began to pray in a restaurant in Luoyuan County, Fujian province. The group was split up among various government offices for questioning and held several days. According to the Thailand-based UCA News, two nuns and a laywoman were denied food and sleep for two days. A Communist Party official attacked the Catholic Church in a lecture to the three women and, under verbal sexual harassment, forced the nuns to sign a document saying they renounced their faith, sources said. (Our Sunday Visitor, January 21, 2001)

Today, Roman Catholics have no open public churches in China because they are illegal. A Holy Mass, a prayer service, and even praying over the dying are all considered subversive activities if done without the government’s permission. Religious services for the underground Church can only be secretly conducted in private homes or deserted fields. Now, the Chinese Government is carrying on a very active campaign to force the underground faithful to register with the Patriotic Association as testified in the above report from Our Sunday Visitor. The Chinese government deems these private gatherings of Roman Catholics and refusal to register with the Patriotic Association as illegal, unauthorized, subversive and punishable by exorbitant fines, detention, house arrests, jails, labor camp or even death. Many bishops, priests, and lay persons are currently detained, or under house arrests, or in hiding. As the Chinese government increases its persecution, we rely on you to intensify your prayers and sacrifice for China, especially through the above mentioned "Evangelizing by Email" and "coast to coast annual Masses" programs.

FUND RAISING

In our last newsletter, we said that we received urgent requests from a few underground bishops and that we needed to raise $ 150,000 in the next 4 months for the various projects. I wish to report that at the time of the printing of this newsletter, we have received about $ 50,000. We deeply appreciate your generosity, even though we are still short of the target. Every sacrificial donation you make will bring us one step closer to meeting the needs of the underground diocese. Your prayers count heavily to us. We hope that in the next few months, your continuous generosity will make up for it!

This was Father Aedan McGrath, through whom God outwitted the Japanese and saved hundreds of Chinese women during the Sino-Japanese war, and gave them the grace of baptism. (The Japanese Government as of this date more than half a century later has never apologized and compensated the victims for the atrocious crimes it had committed during ‘the rape of Nanking’. Hundreds of thousands died. More injured.)

Father McGrath was a Columban missionary for 71 years. He went to China in 1929 until he was expelled by the Chinese Communists in 1954 after he was imprisoned for 2 years and 8 months. "I was put in a tiny cell, like a dog box. It was solitary confinement for almost three years. There was no table, chair or bed. I could only lie on the floor. I was never allowed to close my eyes, talk or sneeze." Father McGrath remembered: "I had nothing, but...I said my Rosary. I did some exercises. I had two tins of rice and a bit of vegetable everyday..."

Why did the Chinese Communists hate Father McGrath so much? Because he founded the Legion of Mary all over China. In his early mission days, he had 25 missions over a wide area: "I spent three days in each mission, staying in a straw hut. I brought my own blanket. There were no roads or buses. I walked." It took him a couple of months to cover all the ground for one round of visit. Following a visit to Dublin in 1946, he returned and was instructed to start the Legion all over China. "Within half-an-hour, the first praesidium was formed in what was probably the most sophisticated university in China at the time in Shanghai," Father McGrath recalled. "From Shanghai, I went to central China, Hankow, and did the same. Then up to Beijing. Within two years, we had 2,000 magnificent groups."The work was not lost on Mao Zedong. He called the Legion "public enemy number one".

On October 8, 1951, the legion of Mary was condemned on the front pages of newspapers across China as "running dogs of the U.S. imperialists under the cloak of religion", and as "an anti-revolutionary, subversive organization". The Legion was ordered by the Chinese government to be disbanded and to register with the government. In the meantime, they put Father McGrath in jail.

Under the divine protection of our Blessed Mother, the leadership and full support of Bishop Kung, and the good formation that Father McGrath to the Legionaries, the majority of Legionaries stayed loyal to the Church and refused to register. Many lost their jobs and were expelled from schools. Some families were exiled to remote, barren provinces, never to return. Yet, the Legionaries stood firm; they chose to suffer for God’s sake. Many of them were sent to jail and labor camp for 10-30 years. My sister was there for 21 years.

At the height of persecutions of the Legion of Mary, Father Matthew Chang, one of the Chaplains of the Legionaries, said: "You suffered the scourging. I feel for your pain in my heart. Dear Legionaries, you and your families’ tears are the pearls that form the crown of our Blessed Mother. Your sufferings formed the bouquet of roses for her. You have won the first battle. However, be vigilant and pray. The devils would not give up easily". Mr. Francis Shen, who was the President of the Legions of Mary Chapter in Shanghai, was publicly executed in November 1963 with a bullet in his head, because he refused to renounce his faith and to denounce the Legion. Mr. Shan won a crown of martyrdom for the Legion of Mary and for China.

On his release from China, Father McGrath received a huge reception in the National Stadium in Dublin, and was attended by the President of Ireland and the Legion Founder, Mr. Frank Duff. He worked for approximately 11 years with Irish emigrants in England and since 1966 until his death, he worked tirelessly for the Legion of Mary and traveled constantly around the world to visit and counsel the refugee Legionaries from China. In an encounter with a former female Chinese Legionnaire whom he had not met for several decades, he remarked in fluent Mandarin: "What a beautiful girl you are!" The girl took off her wig and revealed her bald head as the result of chemo therapy. He embraced her, cried and said: "This is a miracle from the Holy Mother. Rose, were you not jailed by the Communists for 26 years." He was already more than 90 years old, yet he still remembered exactly her history. "I believe that the Blessed Mother will give you back 26 years!"

I remembered his first visit with the Cardinal in 1994 after 43 years of separation. My family and a small group of former prisoners of conscience in China attended a Holy Mass at Cardinal’s small chapel. We were in awe facing three GIANTS of the underground Catholic Church in China. None of them stood more than 5 feet 2 inches: His Eminence Cardinal Kung (age 93 after 32 ½ years in jail), Fr. Xavier Tsai, S.J. (age 86 after 35 years in jail) and Fr. McGrath (age 90, expelled from China, 2 ½ years in jail). They concelebrated Mass in Chinese. Fr. McGrath addressed the congregation after the Mass in fluent Mandarin, apologized that he had forgotten how to read most of the Chinese characters. He asked us to thank God for the grace to share in a very small way, his cross as Catholics in China. After that visit, he visited His Eminence each time he was in the United States, and became a frequent guest with my family. In his 90’s, Father McGrath traveled extensively and incessantly throughout the world, including many remote areas to promote the Legion of Mary, always relying on Holy Mother’s protection and a small bottle of nitroglycerin in his pocket. He always kept in touch with us, for China is very close to his heart.

In his last letter to me on July 11, 2000, he wrote: "I am writing you a short letter to thank you for sending me that document on the Open Letter. It is well put together and these questions certainly need to be answered from somewhere. We all must realize that it would take quite a while for the different cardinals to become acquainted with all the circumstances before they could answer, but I as one hope and look forward to seeing those answers. Thank you for sending it.... Joseph, this is just to let you know that I am intensely interested in what you are doing and I hope everything will come out smoothly.Please give my warm regards to Agnes and all my dear friends in Connecticut."

Father W. Aedan McGrath, S.S.C. died on December 25, 2000. He was 94. He looked about 65 with the energy of someone much younger. He was very active until the very end, having just appeared on Ireland’s TV "Would You Believe" shortly before he died. He died of a massive heart attack among his family members after he offered three morning Masses on Christmas day. He is the true spiritual father of the Legion of Mary in China. His impact on the Roman Catholic Church in China 50 years ago and the survival of the Roman Catholic Church in China today in the underground are inseparable. The church in China is forever grateful to Almighty God for sending this great missionary to China during its most difficult years. We believe that Father Aedan has been raised up to a glorious and happy eternal life by a loving and merciful God. Our prayers are added to thousands of others that he is with the Lord. Please pray for Father Aeden McGrath.

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