1973 - Wu Yingfeng

1973

Prison, Anhui

Wu Yingfeng.

Wu Yingfeng was born during the Boxer year of 1900 in Pudong County, near Shanghai. As a child he was educated at the Pudong and St. Ignatius High Schools, where he received religious instruction and dedicated himself to Christ. After graduating he went for further studies with the Society of Jesus, where he majored in theology, philosophy and literature. After becoming a priest, Wu was invited to undertake advanced studies at Paris University in France. It was during his time in Europe that Wu came to be known as a gifted and influential writer. Articles flowed from his pen and appeared in numerous magazines and journals of the day.

After returning to China, Wu took up a position at Shanghai’s Aurora Catholic University, and later became the chief editor of the Sacred Heart magazine. Apart from his pastoral and work duties, Wu Yingfeng found time to commit himself to enormous translation tasks, resulting in the publication into Chinese of two monumental works, The Confessions of St. Augustine and the biography of St. Ignatius Loyola.

As the Communist threat intensified throughout the 1940s, Wu’s thoughts were firmly focused on his beloved writing and translating. After 1949 the government office frequently ordered him into the police station for questioning, but he always displayed a calm demeanour as if there was nothing to worry about. It was said of Wu that his “personality was stern and upright, and he would never stoop to flattery.”[1]

In 1953 the Communists tried to recruit Wu Yingfeng to their side and use him to influence believers throughout China to join the Catholic Patriotic Association. The Communists had grossly underestimated Wu, who was “neither afraid of force, nor did he play up to those in power. He remained firm and unshaken in his faith in God, in his ultimate loyalty to…Christ Himself. He set a shining example to both priests and laymen alike.”[2]

After the government realized they could not use him for their purposes, Wu became superfluous to their needs. On Christmas Eve 1953, hundreds of people were packed into church when truckloads of Catholic men who had compromised and joined sides with the government suddenly turned up with the intention of disrupting the service. A tense standoff ensued, and nobody knew what would happen as the church clergy jostled with the men for control of the service. At that moment,

“all one saw was Father Wu Yingfeng march from the church door to the heart of the congregation, enter the sacristy, put on his surplice, walk up to the altar, and after respectfully kneeling in front of the chalice, he turned around to face the hall of packed worshippers, and declared in a loud voice: ‘As of now I speak quite clearly to all the three-self renovationists, please leave this church of your own accord! I repeat this, leave this church at once, or otherwise you will be dragged out!’”[3]

Wu’s bravery and boldness resulted in the compromisers departing in embarrassment, and signalled a great victory for the Catholics who refused to join themselves to an atheistic dictatorship. Because of this act Wu Yingfeng became an enemy of the state, and he knew it was a matter of time before he would have to pay for his commitment with his blood. The evening of September 8, 1955, lives in infamy for the Catholic Church in Shanghai. On that night “over a thousand priests, brothers, sisters, and laymen and laywomen”[4] were rounded up and taken away by the government, many never to be seen alive again. Wu was among those arrested that night. A group of armed Public Security officers gathered all the priests of his church into the dining room, and told them they were under arrest for breaking the law. Wu was the first to stretch out his hands in a calm and fearless manner in order to be handcuffed. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. To begin with he was detained in the Shanghai Prison, before being transferred to a prison labour camp in Anhui Province.

For years nothing was heard from Wu, except a few anecdotal stories from other prisoners who claim they spotted the priest at one time or another. Nobody was allowed to visit Wu, and he was not permitted to write to anyone. It was reported that when the Cultural Revolution commenced in 1966 Wu was severely mistreated and tortured. It was not until the later years of the Cultural Revolution, possibly in 1973, that news was leaked out that Wu Yingfeng had been tortured to death. One of the tributes in honour of the martyred priest said,

“Wu Yingfeng had dedicated his whole life to the cause of the church. He had sacrificed his life for the faith and belief of every one of us. And by doing so, he has contributed a beautiful and moving monument to the history of the Catholic Church in China.”[5]

1. September 8th Editorial Board, Blessings of the Divine Bounty, 85.
2. September 8th Editorial Board, Blessings of the Divine Bounty, 85.
3. September 8th Editorial Board, Blessings of the Divine Bounty, 86.
4. September 8th Editorial Board, Blessings of the Divine Bounty, 98.
5. September 8th Editorial Board, Blessings of the Divine Bounty, 87.