CHINESE GOV’T DEFAMES FRENCH MISSIONARY MARTYR
NEWS: WORLD NEWS
Maintains St. Auguste Chapdelaine was womanizer, spy, insurrectionist
DINGAN, China (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Chinese government is demonizing a French missionary martyr.
In the district of Dingan, a county in the Chinese Hainan province, a museum is scheduled to opencelebrating the murder of French priest Auguste Chapdelaine as being an act of "patriotism," as, according to the country's Communist Party, the saint was a womanizer, insurrectionist and spy for the Catholic Church.
The display in the Dingan museum, the location of Chapdelaine's 1856 martyrdom, features Catholic vestments and sacramentals alongside life-size exhibits showcasing the priest's torture and execution. A mural located outside of the building displays the missionary trapped in a cage intended to slowly suffocate its victims.
The display aims to reveal the true history of the saint's mission, claims vehemently contested by Chinese historians, as being an operation of rape, assault and exploitation.
“He was evil,” accused an unnamed man, working to ready the museum. “He was the reason you [Western nations] invaded us.” The execution of St. Auguste is largely seen as a catalyst for France's cooperation in the British led invasions of China, known as the Second Opium War.
Communist officials within Dingan County have also contracted filmmakers to create a two-hour long documentary highlighting the saint's alleged misconduct. "Father Ma [the local name of St. Auguste] was not a simple missionary,” alleges Liang Shuikang, CEO of the film company. “His so-called ‘baptism’ was taking other people’s wives and sleeping with them first."
“We are going to restore the true story of history,” he continues, noting the primary goal of the displays are to boost Chinese patriotism and “make the motherland into a great power."
Chinese historians are decrying the endeavors, with Yuan Weishi, a historian and retired professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, labeling Chapdelaine's murder as a "shame to China”.
Blaming a recent surge in "national sentiment," Yuan scolded academics who "promote under the name of patriotism what they think are heroic deeds by China," but in actuality are "wrong and ignorant."
“They believe he’s an evil man, but we don’t see him that way,” noted a Catholic villager from Dingan.
The Catholic Church in Dingan is constantly under scrutiny from the local Communist authorities, who hurl accusations of "tricking ordinary people" into buying the “spiritual opium” that is the Catholic faith.
Father Wei, a priest stationed in Dingan, echoes the villager's sentiments. “How could Father Ma be that bad?" he asked. "People think that just because of the propaganda, but it makes life difficult for us.”
The youngest of nine children, Chapdelaine was born in 1814 outside of Normandy and was ordained to the priesthood in 1843; the priest was soon sent to join a mission in the Guangxi province of China, where hundreds were converted to the Faith. Following multiple arrests and releases, Chapdelaine was taken captive along with several other Chinese Catholics in 1856. Accused of insurrection, the missionary was then subjected to days of tortures and offered bribes for his release, which he rejected.
After spending time locked in a small cage that slowly restricted his breathing, the priest died and was beheaded.
His beatification came in 1900, with Pope St. John Paul II canonizing him in 2000, along with 120 Christian martyrs who died at the hands of the Chinese.
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