When the parish that had been returned to them after serving as a kindergarten for many years was remodeled, a community in the province of Jiangxi decided to place in the new stained glass images of the Irish priests who carried out their apostolate there between the 1920s and 1950. Among them a martyr killed by communist militias whose grave remains a place revered by local Catholics.
Milan () – In these weeks, the centenary of the celebration of the Shanghai Council is an opportunity to once again propose reflection on the topic of the face of the Catholic Church in China. Even in the recent congress that was held at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, one of the central topics was the question of the relationship between the Western missionaries who were in China in the turbulent first half of the 20th century, the colonial powers and the culture Chinese local. An issue that the strong emphasis that President Xi Jinping placed today on the “Sinicization” of religions has turned into a hot topic. But outside of readings of history linked to current political events in Beijing, how does a small Catholic community in a Chinese province really view the missionaries who arrived from Europe and carried out their ministry there until they were forced to leave the country in fifties?
An interesting testimony in this sense can be read in the last number of Far East Magazine, the magazine of the missionaries of Saint Columban, an Irish institute that has a long history of apostolate in mainland China, with links that continue to this day. It is the story of a trip that some of these missionaries made in recent months to Nanfeng, in the province of Jiangxi, where the priests of the institute were present for more than twenty years. Something seemingly small, but symbolically important, recently happened here. When the local neo-Gothic church was restored – built at the beginning of the 20th century and returned just fifteen years ago, after having long been used as a nursery for children – the current parish priest proposed that the three missionaries of St. Columbanus be represented. They ministered in Nanfeng.
“Two years ago, when Covid-19 restrictions began to be eased in the Chinese province of Jiangxi, the Catholics of the Nanfeng parish made plans for the necessary renovation of the Church of the Sacred Heart – says Fr. Dan Troy, who has lived in Wuhan for some years. Fr Dominic Zhang drew on his experience to negotiate the initial stages of the project with a local builder. The first stage was to remake the roof of the temple, which had remained intact for nearly 100 years. It was also decided to design and install new stained glass windows and Fr Dominic wanted the history of the parish to be reflected in the new windows by placing the images of the three priests of St Columbanus there. All of them had served in or around the parish during some of the years between the late 1920s and early 1950s” (precisely when the Shanghai Council and its controversial implementation took place).
The missionaries in question were Fr. Tim Leonard (who arrived in 1928 and died a martyr here a year later), Fr. Jerry Buttimer (also buried in Nanfeng, where he died in the heat wave of 1948) and Fr. Paddy Dermody (who after he was expelled from China continued his ministry in the United States and then in Ireland). It should be noted that Father Leonard was assassinated by communist militias: in July 1929. A group of guerrillas broke into the church while he was celebrating mass and a few days later he was tried and accused of being a foreign spy and promoting religion. They killed him with a pickaxe. His tomb at Nanfeng – marked by a marble Celtic cross with an inscription in Chinese characters – remains a site visited by local Catholics.
“The Chinese people – comments Fr. Troy – has a deep respect for history, whether it is the history of a nation, a district or a family. Many say that their family has written documents dating back several centuries. The Catholics of the Nanfeng Sacred Heart Church decided to include the images of the three priests in the new stained glass windows to honor their history. “These windows remind local Catholics and many visitors that the history of the Church in this part of China is linked to the sincere efforts of the missionaries of St. Columban in ancient times.”
“Our visits to the tombs of Fr. Leonard and Fr. Buttimer – adds the Irish priest – allowed us to verify that they continue to bear witness to a part of the missionary history of the Church in central China. We also celebrated Mass at the Church of the Sacred Heart. Images of the three priests of St. Columbanus accompanied us from the newly installed stained glass windows and the sweet echoes of history seemed to unite us in a way that affirmed that God can faithfully connect the history of the Church in China across the generations.”
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