MISSION in CENTRAL CHINA A SHORT HISTORY of P.I.M.E. INSTITUTE in HENAN and SHAANXI Ticozzi Sergio, Hong Kong 2014 1 (on the cover) The Delegates of the 3rd PIME General Assembly (Hong Kong, 15/2 -7/3, 1934) Standing from left: Sitting from left: Fr. Luigi Chessa, Delegate of Kaifeng Msgr. Domenico Grassi, Superior of Bezwada Fr. Michele Lucci, Delegate of Weihui Bp. Enrico Valtorta, Vicar ap. of Hong Kong Fr. Giuseppe Lombardi, Delegate of Bp. Flaminio Belotti, Vicar ap. of Nanyang Hanzhong Bp. Dionigi Vismara, Bishop of Hyderabad Fr. Ugo Sordo, Delegate of Nanyang Bp. Vittorio E. Sagrada, Vicar ap. of Toungoo Fr. Sperandio Villa, China Superior regional Bp. Giuseppe N. Tacconi, Vicar ap. of Kaifeng Fr. Giovanni Piatti, Procurator general Bp. Martino Chiolino, Vicar ap. of Weihui Fr. Paolo Manna, Superior general Bp. Giovanni B. Anselmo, Bishop of Dinajpur Fr. Isidoro Pagani, Delegate of Italy Bp. Erminio Bonetta, Prefect ap. of Kengtung Fr. Paolo Pastori, Delegate of Italy Fr. Giovanni B. Tragella, assistant general Fr. Luigi Risso, Vicar general Fr. Umberto Colli, superior regional of India Fr. Alfredo Lanfranconi, Delegate of Toungoo Fr. Clemente Vismara, Delegate ofKengtung Fr. Valentino Belgeri, Delegate of Dinajpur Fr. Antonio Riganti, Delegate of Hong Kong 2 INDEX: 1 1. Destination: Henan (1869-1881) 25 2. Division of the Henan Vicariate and the Boxers’ Uprising (1881-1901) 49 3. Henan Missions through revolutions and changes (1902-1924) 79 4. Henan Vicariates and the country’s trials (1924-1946) 125 5. Henan Dioceses under the Communist Government (since 1946) 153 6. A Short History of PIME in Hanzhong (Shaanxi) 197 Appendix 1: Geographical Maps 202 Appendix 2: Short Chronology 204 Appendix 3: List of PIME Members who worked in Henan and Shaanxi 213 Appendix 4: Chinese names of Chinese people and places 218 Bibliography 3 1 DESTINATION: HENAN (1869-1881) Arrival of the first members of the Lombard Seminary On March 19, 1870, the first four members of the Lombard or Milan Seminary for Foreign Missions1 could at last set foot in Henan province, the Apostolic Vicariate, whose care the Holy See has entrusted to them with the decree of June 28, 1869. They were Frs. Angelo Cattaneo, Vito Ruvolo-Ospedale and Gabriele Cicalese, led by Mgr. Simeone Volonteri, as pro-vicar apostolic. They had left Hong Kong on February 8 on an American ship that had brought them to Shanghai. From there, they had sailed the Yangzi River up to Hankou, where they had stopped some days at the Procure of the Franciscans. Then, accompanied by three Catholics who had purposely come from Jinjiagang (former Kin-Kia-Kang 2), after 25 days of sailing against current in the hands of the crew of two river boats, they had reached Laohekou, in Hubei. They could cross the boundary into Henan on St. Joseph’s day. But the journey was not yet over. On carts, they hastened towards Jinjiagang, at the outskirt of the city of Nanyang, the provincial capital (at 12 li = ca. 7 km). Great was their joy when, approaching Nanyang, they saw the Chinese clergy and other Christians coming to welcome and accompany them to their final destination. They were tired but ready to undertake the work of the evangelization of the whole province. Their entry in Jinjiagang was humble but joyful. First, they rushed into the chapel to prostrate themselves in front of the Blessed Sacrament and of the altar of the Virgin Mary, in order to give thanks to God for arriving safe and sound to their Mission. Then, they gathered together into a large room, where they met all the faithful who came to greet them according to the Chinese custom.3 1 See Box, on the following page. 2 The present Jinjiagang, or Jin-jia-gang, previously written Kin-Kia-Kang (“the hill of the Jin family”), following the local pronunciation, is at present absorbed into the city of Nanyang, which is registering a large expansion. 3 According to the diary of Fr. Cattaneo, quoted in G. MELONI, He-Ngan-Ie per le strade della Cina, Mons. Angelo Cattaneo, vicario apostolico del Honan sud (Merate, Bertoni Editore, 1990), p. 30. 4 The Lombard Institute for Foreign Missions The concern for world evangelization has never disappeared in Europe: it was kept up not only by members of the great religious congregations or orders, which were sent to work in mission territories either by the Portuguese authorities under the Padroado system or by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of Faith (or Propaganda, now Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples 4), but also by the charismatic spirit spread by the Society for the Propagation of Faith, officially founded in Lyon by Pauline Marie Jaricot (1799-1862) on May 3,1822. Such a context strengthened the awareness of the responsibility of the Holy See and of the Local Churches, diocesan bishops and priests, for the evangelization of the whole world. In fact, such an atmosphere pushed the ancient religious congregations to a greater opening to the missions, as well as the diocesan bishops to set up new missionary institutions, more specifically, colleges or seminaries for training clergy who wanted to go to work in foreign missions, according to the model of Paris Missionary Society. The possibility to carry out this project in the Lombard Province, where many people already shared such a desire and perspective, was given by the Holy Father Pius IX. The French missionary bishop of Madurai, India, Mgr. Jean-Felix Luquet (1810-1858), who, passing through Milan on his way back to France towards the end of 1847, reported to the Archbishop of the city, Carlo Borromeo Romilli (1795-1859) and all the other Lombard Bishops the Pope’s desire to set up in Lombardy a seminary for foreign missions. Fr. Angelo Ramazzotti (1800-1861), then Superior of the Oblates in Rho and soon afterwards appointed Bishop of Pavia, who was present at the meeting, considered the proposal as his own and committed himself to make it a reality. Fr. Ramazzotti put at disposal his own house in Saronno, and, after his episcopal ordination (held in Rome on June 30, 1850), he gathered the first five priests with the Director, Rev. Giuseppe Marinoni (1810-1891), on July 30, in order to officially inaugurate the Lombard Seminary for Foreign Mission on the following day. On December 1, 1850, all the Bishops of Lombardy issued the official document to canonically establish it, as expression of the missionary spirit of their Churches. Rev. Marinoni made use of his most active and intelligent commitment to develop the institution in the best way. After a while, since the house in Saronno became inadequate to the needs, the Seminary moved to Milan at the St. Calocero’s Church, to which a building was added, capable to host a good number of candidates. 4 The Sacred Congregation for Propagation of Faith (SCPF, or Propaganda Fide, now Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, CEP) was founded by Pope Gregory XV on June 22, 1622, by restructuring previous committees. Its aim was not only to better organize and coordinate the missionary work in the new world countries, but also to overcome the serious obstacles created by the control and by the privileges of Spain and Portugal kept on mission territories. Their ‘padroado’ (patronage), at the beginning, helped indeed the evangelization enterprise, but later it became a source of heavy difficulties hindering it. The SCPF founded its Procure in charge of the Missions in the Far East at Guangzhou in 1705 through the Pontifical Legate in China, Mgr. Charles Maillard de Tournon (1668-1710). Later, it moved between Guangzhou and Macao, according to the political climate and convenience. In 1842, the Procure was brought from Macao to Hong Kong, where it remained until 1922, when the Apostolic Delegation of the Holy See was established in China, with Mgr. Celso Costantini (1876-1958) as its first Delegate. 5 A decree from Milan Archbishop, dated April 26,1851, gave to the Seminary the new juridical name, the “Lombard Institute for Foreign Missions”.5 The first missionary expedition, formed by five priests and two brother- cooperators, under the leadership of the Apostolic Prefect Fr. Paolo Reina (1825-1861), received the Crucifix on March 16, 1852, and departed for Papua New Guinea, to take up the care of the Melanesia-Micronesia Mission. Unfortunately, after about three years of unbearable sufferings, caused by sickness, shortage of food and medicines (Bro. Giuseppe Corti died on March 17,1855, at 38 years of age, Fr. Carlo Salerio (1827-1870) was forced to return to Italy by illness), opposition and persecution by local people (Fr. Giovanni Mazzucconi (1826-1855) was murdered with the whole crew of the ship La Gazelle on September 25,1855), and fruitless apostolic efforts, the missionaries were forced to abandon the Mission. They withdrew to Sydney, Australia, and later, leaving there Fr. Angelo Ambrosoli (1824-1851), they went to Manila and to Labuan, in Borneo. The Holy see, at last, assigned the remaining members, namely Frs. Paolo Reina and Timoleone Raimondi (1827-1894) with Bro. Luigi Tacchini (1825-1870), to the Mission in Hong Kong, then a British Colony, where they arrived in 1858. In the meantime, the Institute registered further missionary expeditions: in 1854, it sent its first missionaries to India: in Andra Pradesh and Bengal, which then included also the present Bangla Desh. In 1858, there was the expedition of its first missionaries to Burma (present Myanmar) and in 1869 the expedition to Henan, China. Environment and Conditions of the apostolic work The missionaries were only a few in number.