1951 - John Dong Shizhi

July 2, 1951

Chongqing

John Dong Shizhi.

One of the bravest and most uncompromising examples of Christian faith during the Communist brutality came from an unassuming Chinese priest named Dong Shizhi (Tung Shih-chih). He had taken the Christian name John at his baptism. For years Dong had been working at the Shanghai Catholic Central Bureau. When the Communist government released their Chongqing Manifesto, which they falsely claimed had been signed by thousands of Catholic leaders throughout China, Dong travelled to Chongqing to see for himself if the believers there were wavering in their faith.

On June 3, 1951, as large numbers of believers were leaving the Cathedral after mass, hundreds of Communists carrying banners surrounded the church and demanded the expulsion of the Vatican’s representative in China, Archbishop Riberi. Many of the believers were forced to march with the Communists that day, including the visiting John Dong Shizhi. As evening fell a huge public rally was held to denounce the archbishop. More than 25,000 people gathered in the terrace in front of the cathedral. Several speakers were scheduled to address the crowd, including one or two priests who had renounced their faith and were displayed by the Communists as ‘shining lights’ before the masses. First the Vicar General, Zhe Mingliang, rose and denounced Riberi with great venom. The organizers were well pleased and gave him rapturous applause. Dong also volunteered to speak, and the Reds were overjoyed. He walked to the podium and gave a speech that has been remembered by Chinese Catholics in much the same way that George Washington’s “Farewell Address” impacted his generation. With a clear and constant voice, Dong said,

“The subject of this speech will be the sacrifice that I now make of myself to the two great powers—my religion and my country…. I have only one soul, and I cannot divide it. I do, however, have a body which can be cut to bits. It seems best, then, to offer my whole soul to God and His Holy Church, and to give my body to my country. If she is pleased to take it, I do not begrudge it to her….

I beseech the civil authorities to accept my sacrifice, not showing me the least indulgence. And above all, if it should happen that I weaken, I beg them not to tolerate this weakness…. To guard in advance against my breaking down, and in the event that I lose control of myself and weaken, I take this opportunity, while I am quite lucid, to solemnly declare that I repudiate statements of apostasy in advance….

[The Communists] have one trait that compels my admiration, reproaches my own indolence and recalls to my mind the millions of martyrs the Church has claimed in her 2,000 years. These martyrs demand that I beseech God, day and night, that He will forgive my many sins and grant me, too, the matchless gift of dying for the Faith. The first admirable quality of the Communists is their capacity for welcoming death. They never betray their cause…. Should I, who am a Catholic, show a cowardly attachment to life, when they do not? A Christian who is capable of treason to his God will also commit treason to his Church and then to his country. The Communists themselves are wont to say, ‘For one of us who falls, 10,000 will arise.’ How could a Catholic forget, then, that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians?....

Do not say that I prattle nonsense—do not imagine that I am insincere. I believe that the Communists, trained to so rigorous a standard as their own today, will, when they come to know the Church, become Catholics of a devotion and zeal that will make them a thousand times better Catholics than I. I beg of God that in the Communist Party there may be found many Sauls who will become Pauls, vastly outshining my own poor priesthood. It is my most fervent prayer. It will very soon be heard….

I am a Catholic Chinese. I love my country and I also love my Church. I deplore whatever makes for discord between the two. But if the Church and the government cannot agree, then all Chinese Catholics must sooner or later die. Why, then, should I not offer my own life at once in the hope that it may hasten a reconciliation?.... May I be pardoned for all the shortcomings of this speech. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”[1]

After Dong had finished his speech there was a hush over the crowd. It seemed like the Communists had entered into something of stupor, paralyzed momentarily by the power and authority of Dong’s words, and unable to stop his speech even though they understood he had not criticized the Church at all, but had rather confirmed his love of Christ and the Church, and his hope that the Communists would one day share his faith.

For the next few days Christians in Chongqing held their collective breath, waiting for the reaction from the humiliated Reds. The next Sunday the Vicar General, Zhe Mingliang, who had spoken before Dong, rose at the Chongqing Cathedral and spoke on behalf of all priests, including himself, who had signed the statement against Archbishop Riberi. He said, “We have committed a serious offense by lending our names and our presence to the Communist demonstration. We solemnly withdraw our names, conscious of our sin before God and you. We humbly ask pardon for the scandal we have given.”[2]

After the conclusion of the service the enraged Communists questioned every Chinese priest in Chongqing, hoping to find who would take their side against the Church. Not one was willing to join them. The next day “all the Chinese priests of Chongqing were summoned to a meeting where a Red spokesman threatened them for hours; they still stood firm. One man had saved the Faith of a whole city and its 39,000 Catholics.”[3]

The incredible turnaround in Chongqing had thwarted the Communists’ plans and deeply embarrassed them. Everyone knew the revenge would come, and it would be without restraint. Early in the morning of July 2, 1951, John Dong Shizhi was arrested and carried off to prison. He was never heard from again.

Later, eyewitnesses said that Dong was executed in prison after being savagely tortured to the gate of death. This one man had heroically stood up against the mighty Red tide and had won a martyr’s crown. A fellow priest recalled how Dong had once told him, “Persecution is coming to China. The priests must expect to be killed. I hope to die as a martyr.”[4]

1. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 163-165. Dong’s famous speech has also been documented in Myers, Enemies Without Guns, 103-104; Smyth, …But Not Conquered, 67-68; Columba Cary-Elwes, China and the Cross: A Survey of Missionary History (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1957), 272-274; Monsterleet, Martyrs in China, 86-94; and September 8th Editorial Board, Blessings of the Divine Bounty of September 8th: In Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Sept.8th Persecution of the Catholic Church in Mainland China 1955-1995 (Taiwan: September 8th Editorial Board, 1995), 80-83.
2. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 166.
3. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 166.
4. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 166.