THE REMNANT10 September 15, 2010

The blood of the martyrsis the seed of the Church.

–Tertullian, from the “Apologeticus”

The End

Father Chrysostomus Chang plumbedthe depths of his human will for asupernatural strength. With only a

few minutes remaining of his life in thematerial world, he lifted his thoughts to thespiritual. Through screams from the mob,he addressed his confreres at his side onelast time, to prepare them not for death,but for life everlasting: “We’re going to diefor God. Let us lift our hearts one moretime, in offering our total beings.”

Helpless, the six Trappist monks stoodhandcuffed and chained on a makeshiftplatform, targets of a throng of frenziedhatred that surged toward them. The blood-encrusted, lice-infested men, wearing ragscaked in their own filth, had nowhere torun, no one to help them. After six monthsof mind-bending interrogations and body-rending torture, it was over. It was all over.

The verdict had just been read by aChinese Communist officer: Death! to becarried out immediately.

Hundreds of crazed peasants, with fistsraised, with contorted faces, with spit ontheir lips, screamed rehearsed slogans ofapproval at the approaching slaughter.Executioners – reliable Party henchmen –readied their rifles to exterminate theRoman Catholic monks, believers in thesuperstitious cult, lovers of the God on theCross imported from the Imperialist West.

And so it happened on January 28,1948, in the dead of winter in Pan Pu Tsun,an unmapped village, a frigid heathen hellin the Mongolian mountains, somewherein the frozen north of the Republic of China.

Just over the ridge from thepandemonium staged by the soullessChinese Communists – believers in thematerialistic cult, lovers of the god of deathand destruction – lay the charred ruins ofOur Lady of Consolation, the once-majesticabbey the monks had called home.

Jostled in the madness, the monks fellto their knees. With their swollen handstied and chained behind their backs, theycouldn’t even cross themselves – In thename of the Father and of the Son andof the Holy Ghost – a final time.

The death squad – Communist soldiersat the ready – loaded their rifles with freshrounds of ammo. Shots rang out. One, thenthe next, followed by the next, the monkscollapsed upon the blood-splattered, frozenground. Their lifeless bodies were draggedto a nearby sewage ditch and dumped intoa heap, one on top of the other. Alerted bythe shots, wild dogs, roaming the village’sdirt roads, scavenging for scraps, scurriedover to the bodies to investigate. Sniffing,they lapped up the warm blood, steamingin the icy air.

It was all over. Our Lady ofConsolation was no more.

They Died in ChinaThe Forgotten War on Catholic Priests

Theresa MoreauREMNANT COLUMNIST, California

The Beginning

The saga of Our Lady of Consolationbegan 64 years earlier on June 16, 1883.On that glorious day, as the hot summerwind from the Gobi Desert carried itsgolden dust eastward, and the cicadanymphs emerged reborn, buzzing incelebration of their emergence into newlife from their old shell of death, FatherEphrem Seignol, a Trappist monk, stoodon a ledge, in the shadow of West SoulMountain. Atop a ridge nearly 10,000 feethigh, that much closer to God, he glimpsedfor the first time the valley of Yang KiaPing (translation: Yang Family Land).Before his eyes, lay the birthplace of theTrappist Community in China.

With him, Father Ephrem had broughtlittle else except his dreams, his duties ofstate, God’s will and the name of the futureabbey. Before he had departed for Chinafrom his priory in Tamie, France, from theWest for the East, from the Occident forthe Orient, he visited his close friend FatherJohn Bosco, in Turin, Italy. The future saintsuggested that the abbey be christened withthe same name as the chapel in which theywere sitting: Our Lady of Consolation. Andso it would be.

The Trappists had answered a call fromRoman Catholics in the village of Fan Shan.Desperate for Mass and the sacramentson a regular basis, the Chinese natives hadenticed the monks with an offer to sell tothe religious order an immense valley ofrocky, untilled, virgin land in Chaharprovince (now Inner Mongolia AutonomousRegion and Hebei province).

Yang Kia Ping, approximately 60square miles in size, about 75 miles – asthe Mongolian ring-necked pheasant flies– northwest of Peking (old form of Beijing),the northern capital of what was at thattime Imperial China, where EmpressDowager Cixi ruled from the Inner Palaceof the Forbidden City. Travel to the site ofthe future abbey was measured in days,not hours.

Don Bosco suggested that theChinese abbey be christened

Our Lady of Consolation.

Back in 1883, when Father Ephremarrived in the valley, the Imperial Peking-Kalgan Railway didn’t exist. Constructionwouldn’t even begin until 1905. The fastestmode of travel consisted of jostling alongatop a mule, along narrow dirt waysthrough the fields and plains. To reach thestony plateau in the Taihang Mountains inHuailai County, a traveler had to be on alertthrough the heavily wooded areas, on thelookout for bandits and bears. Along thedeath-defying paths, one had to rely ontrustworthy mules that tested the rock-strewn trails with their hooves beforeputting weight down, hugging close totowers of sheer rock reaching skyward toavoid falling straight down the ravine onthe other side.

To form a Trappist religiousCommunity from a valley of rocks seemedintimidating, but not impossible. Withreligious recruits from Europe and the localvillages, despite a slow start, eventually,on those rocks, they built their church, OurLady of Consolation, an impressive replicaof the architectural beauty at Mount St.Bernard Abbey.

Pilgrims arriving for the first time andlooking down upon the abbey from anyridge high in the surrounding mountains,saw a Community so large inside itsenclosure, it appeared like any village inthe hills. The church was encircled byseveral single-story buildings and threecourtyards. A vegetable garden sproutedup in the middle of the valley, along withits blossoming fruit trees and, of course, aluscious vineyard, where Brother IreneusWang, the self-taught viticulturist, tenderlycoaxed the grapes, harvested for the Masswine.

From the Chinese countryside, andeven from the highly cultured, internationalport city of Shanghai, many boys and menhad felt the call to the austere Trappist wayof life, with its silence and solitude, prayerand penance. The abbey had been blessedwith vocations: oblates, postulants andnovices. So many joined the Community,in fact, that Pope Pius XI, in his 1926encyclical “Rerum Ecclesiae,” lauded themonks for their exceptional work in the Continued Next Page

The Abbey of Our Lady of Consolation in China was so successfulthat Pius XI praised it in his 1926 encyclical “Rerum Ecclesiae”

missions and of winning vocations bybringing pagans to the Church. Two yearslater, on April 29, 1928, the abbey openeda daughter house, Our Lady of Joy, with95 Community members, about 3 milesfrom Tchengtingfu, in the province of Hopei(old form of Hebei).

By the time Christmas 1936 rolledaround, Our Lady of Consolation was atits height, with the Community numberingaround 120 monks, mostly Chinese natives,who had attended Mass in the abbey’schapel built for the faithful from thesurrounding villages.

Even though majestic, the abbeyreflected the austere nature of any cloisterof Trappists, the common name for theOrder of Cistercians of the StrictObservance, an offshoot of the Order ofSt. Benedictine. The new order, establishedin 1664 at the Abbey of La Trappe, aimedto follow more closely the literal translationof “The Rule of St. Benedict” and focusedon the penitential aspect of monasticism:little food, no meat, hard manual labor andstrict silence.

Life inside the abbey’s walls waspeaceful even if life outside was anythingbut. The Republican Revolution of 1911ended the centuries-long dynastic rule andmade way for the Chinese NationalistParty (Kuomintang), which becameChina’s official government, formed by anumber of Republican cliques that hadousted the traditional rulers. Then theCommunists in Moscow, the Red capitalof the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,sent some of its cogs in the CommunistInternational machine to Shanghai, wherethe Comintern successfully established theCommunist Party in 1921.

Communists successfully infiltrated theNationalist political organization byclandestine means. But in 1927, theNationalists – headed by GeneralissimoKai-Shek Chiang – uncovered and oustedits Red contingent, because of itsincitement and sadistic fondness of mobviolence – especially at the encouragementof its ringleader Tse-Tung Mao. Thatejection in 1927 ignited the highly volatile,

THE REMNANTSeptember 15, 2010 11

Rev. Fr. Dom Ephrem Seignol, first Superior andFounder of Our Lady of Consolation, Yang Kia Ping.

on-again-off-again Chinese Civil War between theNationalists and Communists, between Chiang and Mao,which ravaged China for more than two decades.

Also a factor was the Empire of Japan, which sawthe fractures in China’s infrastructure as an opportunityto make land grabs. In an attempt to establish their ownpolitical and economic domination, in 1931, the Japaneseinvaded Manchuria, a region in northeast China, wherethey wanted to get their hands on China’s natural resourcesof coal, iron, gold and giant forests. Six years later, onJuly 7, 1937 (referred to as 7-7-7), the Second Chinese-Japanese War began when the Imperial Japanese Armymarched victoriously into Peking, then into Shanghai andon and on throughout China.

As the Japanese advanced, the Nationalists withdrewfrom Peking and northern China. The Japanese could notfill all the holes left by the Nationalists in their retreat, andthe areas left vacant and vulnerable were taken over bythe Communists – the party opposing the Nationalists.

In October 1937, only a few months after the outbreakof the Second Chinese-Japanese War, the Communistsreached Huailai County and the valley of Yang Kia Ping.Our Lady of Consolation found itself between the twoforces: Japanese soldiers to the north and the east;Chinese Communist soldiers to the south and the west.

A peace existed, but only tentatively. The Japanesehad not been hostile to the abbey; to the contrary, theyhad been respectful, out of reverence for the spiritualnature of the Community.

So, too, the Communists treated the monks withrespect, face to face, but they were not sincere. Avowedatheists, Communists consider religion to be one of theevils of the traditional, feudal, “old” world – a declaredenemy in Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto,” publishedin 1848. Also, because the abbey had been established byEuropeans, the monks were considered Western invaders,imperialistic enemies of the Chinese Marxists, whodisregarded the fact that Marxism was yet anotherEuropean import.

For two years, the Reds, experts at gathering andusing information as power, continued their faux friendshipwith the monks, as they secretly gathered intelligence fromthe Community.

On October 15, 1939, around noon, the oblates – theyoungest members of the abbey’s Community – headedoutside the enclosure for their usual Sunday walk in themountains, where they liked to climb sections of the GreatWall. When they reached Gate No. 1, at the third enclosurewall, the young monks-in-training found hundreds ofCommunist soldiers blocking their exit. Not permitted toleave, the youths notified the porter, who notified moremonks, who notified the superior.

It was an official visit, the Reds claimed, as per theorders of Long Ho and Te Chu, the commanders-in-chiefof their army. The Communists demanded the monks handover what they had hidden in their arsenal. When themonks responded that they didn’t have any weaponssecretly stashed, the Communists refused to accept thatanswer.

They grabbed Father Antonius Fan, the prior, anddragged him out to the orchard, where they drew a ropeover his chest and under his arms tied behind his back,then strung him up on a tree. For three hours, he dangled,with his toes just a breath away from touching the ground,until he was cut lose.

Completely under the Red thumbs of the Communists,the monks secretly made plans to get out.

On April 4, 1940, the exodus began. In the first group,five oblates sneaked by the cadres and made their wayover the mountains to the abbey’s daughter house, OurLady of Joy, in Hopei province, about 190 miles southwestof Peking. In the following months, by dribs and drabs, 25more members of the Community – including novices,simple professed and young priests – successfully reachedthe house of refuge. In a final disappearing act, 12 oblateswalked all the way to the Marist Brothers residence afew miles outside the walls of Peking.

When the cadres noticed the dwindling numbers inthe Community, the Party goons decided they had to dosomething. But for six months, the abbey had no troublefrom them. So thinking the Reds had changed their ways,it was decided that those members of the Communitywho had been sent away would be called back home.

Around March 1941, by the time most of the youngmen had been recalled to the abbey, the Communists pulledback their masks and placed the whole Community underhouse arrest. Under constant surveillance, every movewas watched. Nothing could be done by the monkswithout permission of the Communists. No one went in;no one went out unless authorized.

At the time, politically, strategically, the Communistswere busy building up their military strength and settingup their own administrative system in northern China,including the areas around the abbey. For, during WorldWar II, the Communists had tricked the Nationalists intoa civil-war truce, feigning the two could join forces tofight the Japanese. However, the Reds had no intentionsof keeping the truce, but used it as an opportunity to makesure the Nationalists were worn down by the war againstthe Japanese.

With the end of World War II, on August 15, 1945,the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,Japanese forces retreated from their positions around theworld, thus withdrawing from China. The end of the waralso ended the so-called truce between Mao’s Communistsand Chiang’s Nationalists. The all-out civil war betweenthe two ensued in a brutal fight, with Mao chomping downon Chiang, eventually hounding him all the way to Formosa(old Portuguese name of Taiwan).

But the Nationalists weren’t the only targets duringthe civil war. The Communists also started targeting otherenemies: counterrevolutionaries, religious believers andlandlords. The Trappists were all three.

The Communists wanted to destroy the abbey and itsCommunity. But to legitimize their destruction of the abbey,they needed to produce evidence that the monkscommitted some sort of crime.

In August 1945, during the hottest days of the summer,the Communists began turning up the heat even more.For health reasons, supposedly, a Communist general, acommissioner of the People, and his assistant stopped offat the abbey for a bit of a rest. It was not all that unusualfor travelers to lodge for short periods in Yang Kia Ping,what all the locals called Our Lady of Consolation.However, ever wary of the Communists, the abbot, FatherAlexis Baillon, assigned Brother Adrianus Wang, the sub-guest master, to keep an eye on the two guests duringtheir stay, which coincided with a burial inside theenclosure.

The general’s assistant attended the funeral and, later,expressed his admiration to Brother Adrianus for thesolemnity and beauty of the ceremony: “The funeral was

so beautiful. At home, we are buried like dogs,” theassistant said, adding, “The general treats me like a dog.If I could, I would try to kill him.”

“Don’t do it here,” Brother Adrianus said.Weeks later, Communist soldiers arrived at the abbey

and arrested Brother Adrianus, claiming that the officer’sassistant had revealed under torture that the monk hadsuggested the general be assassinated. The Brother’sroom was searched, and soldiers found a notebook withthe following entry, a quote from the abbot, Father Alexis:“Pray God to destroy the Communists.”

Soldiers arrested the abbot, Father Alexis, and FatherMaurus Bougon, who had been the guest master duringthe general’s stay.

On October 25, 1945, all arrested were hauled off toHuang An, a village about 20 miles from the abbey, wherethey were imprisoned in a small room without furniture,without heat. Father Alexis and Father Maurus had theirfeet shackled to the floor with irons all winter long, untilMarch, when the abbey received a notice: Send the mulesto fetch the abbot and the other prisoners. On March 17,1946, all were returned to the abbey and set free exceptthe abbot, Father Alexis, who was ordered to leave China.

Right before departing China for his homeland ofFrance, Father Alexis made an announcement onDecember 1, 1946, in the Chapter Room, where the monksmet daily for the reading of a chapter from “The Rule ofSt. Benedict.” He informed the Community that in theabsence of a father abbot, Father Michaelus Hsu was tobe the superior of the Community.

Intelligent and highly cultured, Father Michaelus hadbeen born in the Tsing-Pu district of Shanghai on March18, 1901, into a family with an aristocratic background.He was a direct descendant (12th generation) of PrimeMinister Kuang-Chi “Paul” Hsu – a member of EmpressDowager Cixi’s Imperial Court, guardian and tutor of thesons of the Imperial House and chancellor of the NationalInstitute. After his death in 1633, the prime minister wasburied with great honors. But, perhaps, most importantly,he had been converted to the Faith by Father Matteo Ricci(Society of Jesus), an Italian and one of the foundingfathers of the Jesuit mission in China.

As for Father Maurus, upon his return fromimprisonment, his religious superiors in Europe gave himan ultimatum: Return to France, or minister to a parish inChina. He chose to remain in China and was appointed aparish priest in Peimong, south of Peking. As the abbeyrestructured its hierarchy, the local Communists continuedto set up and strategize for the upcoming “struggle” againstthe monks.

In the “Communist Manifesto,” Karl Marx wrote,“The history of all hitherto existing society is the historyof class struggles.” Marx’s philosophy of the “struggle,”later coined dialectical materialism, can be understood ina formula: Thesis plus antithesis equals synthesis. To make

Continued Next Page

Father Michaelus Hsu was made superior of theCommunity after Father Abbot was banished from China

THE REMNANTSeptember 15, 201012

it even simpler and to apply it to theChinese Communist agenda: Minorenemies pitted against major enemy equalsnew minor enemies pitted against a newmajor enemy.

The struggle was a form of eliminationthat – when enacted by Mao and hishenchmen – eliminated political enemies,minor and major. To prepare for the properpolitical struggle nationally, Communistsbegan establishing neighborhoodassociations in China’s cities and peasantassociations in the villages. Theassociations held mandatory politicalmeetings, brainwashing sessions organizedto push the Party’s particular struggleagainst whomever the current politicalenemy was.

At times, when a particular enemywas to be targeted and “struggled” against,the enemy could be attacked at either asmall session (attended by members of asingle association) or at a large rally(attended by members of severalneighboring associations). Attendance bymembers was always mandatory. At alarge struggle rally, the targets were usuallyplaced on a raised platform beforehundreds and hundreds of members whoscreamed rehearsed slogans as cadreswalked through the crowds, agitating andinciting rage. Violence – often sadistic andfatal – was encouraged and regarded aslegitimate acts of revenge by the oppressedPeople against their oppressors.

The Trappists of Our Lady ofConsolation were considered oppressors.They were also considered major enemies.In the province of Chahar, there was oneCommunist official who wanted the abbeydestroyed and its members “liquidated.” Abitter fanatic, he searched for someonewith a like mind, and eventually he foundthe perfect Party man for the job andappointed him to take care of theextermination. That man was an ambitiousman who hated everything having to dowith God and loved everything having todo with the Communist Party. He was alsoan intelligent man who had attended auniversity in Peking where he passed hislaw exams. That man, like Mao, was froma family of landowners (consideredoppressors, enemies of the People), andalso like Mao, he renounced his family.

That man was Tui-Shih Li.The struggle against the abbey began

in April 1947. At the peasant associationmeetings in the villages surrounding theTrappist Community, the Communistsbegan agitating the peasants, turning themagainst the monks. The cadres told thepeasants that all the land the monkspossessed actually belonged to the People;that the monks were trying to be lords overthe peasants; that the monks were theoppressors and that the peasants were theoppressed People. For two months, thiscontinued until, finally, they struck theabbey.

On July 1, 1947, two monks weretending some livestock on the abbey’sproperty in Hsing Chuang, about 1 milenorth of the enclosure wall, when they were

T. Moreau/Continued from Page 11

They Died in China

Enemies of the People: Martyred Trappist Monks of Our Lady of Consolation

confronted and hauled before a People’sCourt. A staged mass struggle meeting wasorchestrated by the Communists. Chargedand declared guilty of oppressing thePeople, the lay brothers were ordered tohand over some of the abbey’s goats andcows to the People.

The next day, July 2, 1947, twomessengers arrived at the abbey andordered Father Seraphinus Hsih and FatherChrysostomus Chang to stand trial beforea People’s Court. Under guard, the monkswere marched about 1.5 miles south of theabbey, down to a dry riverbed in the villageof Li Chia Wan Tze. Forced onto aplatform, the two stood before a gatheringof peasants, assembled from manyvillages in the surrounding areas.

Accused of alleged offenses that hadoccurred almost 50 years before, the twohad to answer to certain charges: Thatduring the time of the Boxer Rebellion in1900, for example, foreign troops hadoppressed the People of north China andthat Our Lady of Consolation had been builtwith indemnities exacted from the Chinesegovernment by the foreign powers.

“These monks are guilty,” shoutedcadres. “Do you agree or disagree?”

“We agree!” the peasants shoutedback.

“The will of the People must befulfilled. For this, the abbey must giveproperty to the People,” the judge ruled.“Are you with us or not?”

“With you!” screamed the peasants,the same peasants who had sought refuge

in the abbey in times of danger, had soughtfood in the abbey in times of famine, hadsought relief in the abbey in times of stress.The very same peasants who had bestowedthe abbey with several memorial tabletsas gifts of appreciation for the years ofselfless aid.

(To Be Continued Next Issue)Martyred in China

A Profession of the Catholic Faith

I, N.N., with a firm faith, believe andprofess all and every one of those thingswhich are contained in the Creed which

the holy Roman Church maketh use of.To wit: I believe in one God, the FatherAlmighty, Maker of heaven and earth, ofall things visible and invisible – and in oneLord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Sonof God, and born of the Father before allages; God of God; Light of Light; true Godof true God; begotten, not made;consubstantial to the Father, by whom allthings were made; who, for us men, andfor our salvation, came down from heaven,and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost ofthe Virgin Mary, and was made man; wascrucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;He suffered and was buried, and the thirdday he rose again, according to theScriptures; he ascended into heaven; sitsat the right hand of the Father, and is tocome again with glory to judge the livingand the dead, of whose kingdom there shallbe no end. And (I believe) in One, Holy,Catholic, and Apostolic Church; I confessone baptism for the remission of sins; andI look for the resurrection of the dead, andthe life of the world to come.

I most steadfastly admit and embraceapostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, andall other observances and constitutions ofthe same Church.

I also admit the Holy Scriptureaccording to that sense which our holyMother the Church has held, and does hold,to which it belongs to judge of the truesense and interpretation of the Scriptures;

A Remnant Catechetical Series…

Grounds of Catholic Doctrineby Pope Pius IV

neither will I ever take and interpret themotherwise than according to the unanimousconsent of the Fathers.

I also profess that there are truly andproperly seven Sacraments of the new law,instituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord, andnecessary for the salvation of mankind,though not all for everyone; to wit, Baptism,Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, ExtremeUnction, Orders and Matrimony, and thatthey confer grace; and that of these,Baptism, Confirmation and Orders cannotbe reiterated without sacrilege. And I alsoreceive and admit the received andapproved ceremonies of the CatholicChurch, used in the solemn administrationof all the aforesaid sacraments.

I embrace and receive all and everyone of the things which have been definedand declared in the holy Council of Trent,concerning original sin and justification.

I profess, likewise, that in the Massthere is offered to God a true, proper andpropitiatory sacrifice for the living and thedead. And that in the most holy sacramentof the Eucharist there are truly, really, andsubstantially, the Body and Blood, togetherwith the Soul and Divinity of our Lord JesusChrist; and that there is made a conversionof the whole substance of the bread intothe Body, and of the whole substance ofthe wine into the Blood, which conversionthe Catholic Church callsTransubstantiation. I also confess thatunder either kind alone Christ is receivedwhole and entire, and a true sacrament. Iconstantly hold that there is a Purgatory

and that the souls therein detained arehelped by the suffrages of the faithful

Likewise, that the saints reigningtogether with Christ are to be honored andinvocated, and that they offer prayers toGod for us, and that their relics are to beheld in veneration.

I most firmly assert that the images ofChrist, of the Mother of God, ever virgin,and also of other saints, may be had andretained, and that due honor and venerationare to be given them.

I also affirm that the power ofindulgences was left by Christ in theChurch, and that the use of them is mostwholesome to Christian people.

I acknowledge the Holy, Catholic,Apostolic, Roman Church for the motherand mistress of all churches; and I promisetrue obedience to the bishop of Rome,successor to St. Peter, prince of theApostles and vicar of Jesus Christ.

I likewise undoubtedly receive andprofess all other things delivered, defined,and declared by the sacred canons andgeneral councils and particularly by the holyCouncil of Trent; and I condemn, rejectand anathematize all things contrarythereto, and all heresies which the Churchhas condemned, rejected andanathematized.

I, N.N., do at this present freelyprofess and sincerely hold this true Catholicfaith, without which no one can be saved;and I promise most constantly to retain andconfess the same entire and inviolate, withGod’s assistance, to the end of my life.

(To Be Continued Next Issue)