Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai PDF
Preview Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai
CHURCH MILITANT CHUR CH MIL ITA N T BISHOP KUNG AND CATHOLIC RESISTANCE IN COMMUNIST SHANGHAI Paul P. Mariani HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 2011 Copyright © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mariani, Paul Philip. Church militant : Bishop Kung and Catholic resistance in Communist Shanghai / Paul P. Mariani. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978–0-674–06153–8 1. Gong, Pinmei, 1901–2000. 2. Communism and Christianity—China— Shanghai—History—20th century. 3. Communism and Christianity— Catholic Church—History—20th century. 4. Catholic Church—China—Shanghai— History—20th century. 5. Shanghai (China)—Church history—20th century. I. Title. BX1667.S53M37 2011 282'.5113209045—dc22 2011007460 For my parents CONTENTS Preface ix Note on Romanization xiii Map xiv Introduction 1 1 The Lines Are Drawn 27 2 Targeted Attack 68 3 Arrests and Expulsions 109 4 Assault 143 5 Final Operations 169 Epilogue 206 A Note on Sources 231 Notes 235 Bibliography 265 Index 275 vii PREFACE In retrospect, the genesis of my fascination with the dramatic story recounted in these pages took place in 1995, the year I met Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pinmei for the fi rst and last time. Through the help of his relatives and friends, I was able to visit Kung—then ninety-three years old—at a home for retired clergy in Connecticut. We could barely communicate directly with each other. The cardinal protested that he did not understand the “northern dialect” of Mandarin. He also knew little English. He did, however, know Shanghaiese, French, and Latin, a result of his long seminary formation in his native Shanghai. I was struck by the bearing of this rather diminutive man who, as Shanghai’s fi rst Chinese bishop, had spent almost thirty years in Shanghai’s Ward Road Jail. During the visit, Kung’s main concern was to hear news about his priests who were still in China. Of his own long period of suffering, he said nothing. This was no accident. In fact, for years family and friends prod- ded him to give an account of his experiences. It was to no avail. “God knows what happened,” he would say. “There is no need for anything more.” But others differed. Some felt Kung’s testimony would shed light on religious policy in the early People’s Republic of China. Others felt it was imperative to record an important recent confrontation between church and state. Nearly ten years passed, and I was once again drawn back to learn more about this history. This book is the result. This study is a history of a local Chinese community during a rather short—albeit historically charged—period of time. By showing the Shanghai Catholic community’s resistance to CCP religious policy in the 1950s, I have tried to give a “more differentiated, more contoured under- standing,” in Paul A. Cohen’s words, of a particular community so as to shed light on China as a whole during these important years. As such, ix
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