Arrested in 1955
Born in 1933 into a Catholic family, he suffered persecution in Shanghai from 1951. The terrible crushing machine oppresses the Church which resists, in this city which represents the heart of Chinese Catholicism. Matthew Chu was a seminarian when violence broke out: on the night of September 8 to 9, 1955, a wave of arrests sent all the clergy to prison.
The bishop, Mgr Ignatius Kung Pin-mei and 300 priests were arrested, as well as nuns and lay people. Hundreds of other arrests will follow. In all, more than a thousand Catholics will be thrown behind bars. Priests are kept in solitary confinement for years and subjected to daily interrogations. Members of the same family are dispersed.
The story of this Chinese priest is special, because it is also the story of his family, who, during the roundup of September 8, 1955, saw six of his brothers arrested, one of whom was already a priest, Francis Xavier Chu Shu-de, also a Jesuit, died in prison in 1983. Asianews tells this story of suffering in the name of Christ.
“Their mother Martina, a widow, commutes between the six prisons where her sons are incarcerated. The people of Shanghai nicknamed her “the painful one”: for almost three years, she visited them, walking miles to save even a few cents to bring small things (clothes and food) to her children imprisoned. »
Her children remember: “Regularly insulted as the mother of six counter-revolutionaries, she never gave up, and at each visit, she did not fail to encourage everyone to continue, to accept suffering, to keep the faith in God. Until they were all sent to a labor camp in remote provinces: Heilongjiang, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Gansu and Anhui. For more than 20 years, she was never able to see them again. »
Released in 1984
Future father Chu spent a total of 27 years in prison and forced labor. “Finally released in 1984, he was unable to become a priest in China due to his refusal to join the Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics. In 1988, he obtained permission to embark for the United States with his bishop, Mgr Kung Pin-mei, in what must be called an exile,” continues Asianews.
A year later, Bishop Kung encouraged him to leave for Taiwan to resume his novitiate in the Society of Jesus. It was not until January 9, 1994, at the age of 61, that he was able to be ordained a priest in Taipei, a ceremony which his mother Martina was able to attend.
That year, in an interview published by the missionaries’ magazine of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), World and Missionhe recounted the harshness of life in detention. “Phases of deep trust in the Lord alternated with prostration. My prayer often turned into lament: “Why, Lord, have you given me such a heavy cross?”
“I asked myself countless times if I was still called to offer my life to Him in this state. Despite everything, remembering my mother’s words and example, I simply and stubbornly asked the Lord, every day, for the grace to be faithful to the gift of his calling. »
He concludes: “We were sent to the camps only because we wanted to keep intact the faith we had received and fulfill the will of God. »
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