1970 - Deng Zhungao

1970

Shaoguan Prison, Guangdong

Deng Zhungao (Teng Chin-kao) was a Catholic priest with the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Born around 1887, Deng possessed leadership qualities which were discerned by other church leaders. He was appointed the Coadjutor of the Macau Diocese, before transferring to the Zhaoqing Diocese in Guangdong Province.

As a young man Deng studied theology in the United States and was ordained a priest there. He was so impressed by the teaching principles he learned in America that he determined to establish a school with a similar structure in China. According to Archbishop Deng Yiming of Guangzhou, Deng Zhungao was “a serious, careful and painstaking priest possessed of iron will power…. He achieved outstanding success, and he earned the acclaim and respect of all alike, from teachers, students, and heads of families.”[1]

In 1957, when he was already 70-years-old, Deng was one of several priests arrested at Zhaoqing. Despite his advanced age he was picked upon by the Communists who treated him harshly and held him up to public ridicule. China at the time was in a frenzy of anti-foreign, and especially anti-American, fervour. It was widely known that Deng had studied in America and so was seen as a dangerous threat.

Deng was convicted of the crime of being a counter-revolutionary and was sent to the Shaoguan Prison in northern Guangdong to serve his sentence. Even after arriving in the prison Deng Zhungao was subjected to interrogations and mental disintegration. When he fell ill the prison authorities refused to give him any medical treatment. Despite his numerous trials and hardships Deng continued to survive for ten more years until he died in 1970, at the age of 80. One source says, “Thus he became a heroic martyr, permanently loved and revered because of his sacrifice. His mortal remains were transferred by his friends and relatives to Zhaoqing, and he was buried in a Catholic graveyard, at the foot of a hill.”[2]