1991 - Paul Shi Chunjie

November 3, 1991

Baoding, Hebei

The elderly Auxillary Bishop of Baoding, Paul Shi Chunjie was one of four prominent Catholic leaders who died in custody in China in a relatively short space of time in the early 1990s. Born in 1920, Shi was clandestinely ordained a priest in the underground Catholic Church on April 29, 1987.

The Chinese Public Security Bureau launched a major crackdown against Catholics at the end of 1990. Bishop Shi was one of more than 20 bishops, priests and laymen arrested in Baoding and Yi Xian counties. The whereabouts of the 20 men became a mystery, and most of them were never charged with any crime. Great fears were held that the men, several of them elderly, were being tortured and beaten. At the time of his arrest Shi was blind in both eyes.

No news was heard about him until November 1991, when the “Police returned Bishop Shi’s bruised corpse, clothed only in a sweater and two pairs of torn pants, and refused to reveal the cause of death…. The bishop was tortured to death by exposure to freezing weather. Catholics were forbidden to attend his funeral.”[1] According to a report in The South China Morning Post,

“The bishop died in an old peoples’ home under the supervision of the police. Authorities in Baoding ordered the funeral held within two days of the bishop’s death to avoid large crowds forming when the word spread through Baoding and neighbouring areas. Nevertheless, about 1,000 people turned up.”[2]

The martyrdom of 71-year old Paul Shi Chunjie caused an outpouring of grief and anger from the massive Catholic community in Hebei Province, who had become disillusioned by the terrible persecution and harassment metered out to them by the authorities for many years. Shi had spent 28 of his last 34 years in prison.