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29 Various Political Movements On the eve of the end of WWII, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill gathered for a summit meeting at Yalta and Roosevelt made a large concession to Stalin, allowing Eastern Europe to fall into the Soviet sphere of influence, so that when the war was over the anti-fascist political parties in Eastern Europe all fell into the hands of the communists and the various Eastern European countries became Soviet satellite states, while the communist parties of Western Europe all grew in strength. On the eve of the 1948 Italian election, the Communist party was at the height of its influence and Pope Pius XII called on all Catholics to vote for the Christian Democratic party. As a result, the Christian Democrats won and the political atmosphere in Western Europe calmed down. On 30 June 1949, when the Chinese Communist party was close to achieving total victory, the Vatican Congregation of Rites proclaimed an anticommunism decree, stressing that the materialist communist ideology would certainly oppose Christian faith, even though the Communist leaders had made no speech opposing religious activities. Indeed, events did prove that the Communist party opposed Catholicism, opposed religion, opposed the Christian Church, wherefore according to paragraph 1399 of the decree, it was forbidden to publish, broadcast or read any communist publications, newspapers or listen to any radio transmissions. Also it was forbidden to write for these publications. Catholics were forbidden from participating in any activity that promoted communist theory and also could not argue in defence of antiChristian heresy or they would be seen as abandoning their Christian faith. At that time, I considered that such a blanket instruction would be hard enough to enforce in capitalist countries and among believers, where support for communist parties was not insignificant. In fact, most churches around the world did not pass this order down to the junior ranks. Who would have thought that when I returned to Shanghai, I would discover that Gong Pinmei 166 The Memoirs of Jin Luxian and Rev. Lacretelle had in fact disseminated every word and detail of this decree? At that time I thought that from then on it wouldn’t be easy to be a Catholic in China. The Chinese Communist party really liked to hold meetings and, especially in the early days of Liberation, they held meetings almost every day, sometimes all day. Schools, factories, various work units, all the neighbourhood committees were ceaselessly holding meetings. Rev. Lacretelle forbade Catholics from attending meetings at which the public was required to chant the praises of the CCP. At the meetings, as several thousand people raised their voices and chanted slogans, there were a few Catholics—teachers, students and workers— who could only lower their heads and not join in, not raise their fists, not chant the slogans, so that people looked threateningly at them. In the schools, students were all required to wear the red neckband and to consider this an honour, while teachers organised the students to join the communist Young Pioneers, but Catholics were told that they were not permitted to wear the red neckbands. Catholic workers were allowed to go to work, but not to join labour unions. When the neighbourhood committees organised residents to read the newspaper , Catholics would not join in or would attend without listening. To be a Catholic meant paying a huge price and the consequences were terribly severe. During the Korean War the US became the primary enemy of New China. Several hundred thousand volunteer soldiers full of bravery and energy crossed the Yalu River to fight the Americans alongside the North Korean army. Gong consulted Lacretelle and then instructed Catholics not to join the volunteer army and not to take part in the anti-American pro-Korean movement, nor to contribute funds to build planes and artillery guns. Nonetheless, the Vatican had just appointed an American to be Bishop of Yangzhou in 1949. The Vatican wanted the Catholics to prostrate themselves before an American. It really was tough to be a Catholic. Meanwhile, we the priests were living in comfortable rooms, drinking milk and eating steak while both instructing and propagating these callous and unfeeling instructions, not sparing the faithful from a hopeless outcome, causing them to miss school, become unemployed, or even risk losing their liberty. While I was in jail, I thought these things over, and felt that we had let down the faithful. We ought to have given more thought to the great numbers of the faithful and...

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