Under communists, Chinese Catholics struggled to keep faith alive

Published: 2007-04-05

FUSHUN, China (CNS) -- Ninety-year-old Sister Peter has worked in a bus factory, built houses, reinforced river embankments and spent time in jail and a mental institution. Bishop Pius Jin Peixian of Liaoning, 83, spent 10 years in prison and later was sent to a work farm. In 1966, at age 19, Cecilia Tao Beiling was sent to a work farm "for re-education," because she was Catholic. She spent eight years and four months there. Today, she is the deputy chief editor of the Shanghai Diocese's Guang Qi Research Center. Throughout China, Catholics who suffered after the communist government closed churches in the late 1950s and during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution kept their faith alive under tough conditions. Later, they faced a tough decision: whether or not to openly worship and work within the system under restrictions imposed by the government, including rejecting ties to the Vatican.

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