    When religion was banned in Albania, in 1967, Father Mikel Beltoja was forced to join a farming "cooperative" in the atheist State, led by the revolutionary Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction.
Arrested on April 19, 1973, he was accused of counterrevolutionary activities and propaganda against the State. After two trials, he was sentenced to death, but not before he used the public opportunity to condemn the Communists and their anti–Christian persecutions. Father Mikel Beltoja was executed by firing squad, on February 10, 1974, faithful to Christ and Pope. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET!
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2/28/2018 1 Comment Book Review of "Blood of the Martyrs: Trappist Monks in Communinst China" in Cistercian Studies Quarterly, Volume 49.2, 2014
Theresa Marie Moreau, Blood of the Martyrs: Trappist Monks in Communist China (Los Angeles: Veritas Est Libertas Press, 2013), pp. 199, hardcover, ISBN-13 978-0985830212.
This slender volume tells the story of Our Lady of Consolation in China (1883-1948) and Our Lady of Joy, founded by Our Lady of Consolation in 1928 and existing to this present day on Lantao, Hong Kong. The main focus of this text was to portray the suffering and martyrdom of many of their monks in 1947, 1948 and 1951 under the persecution of the Chinese Communists. Thirty-three monks from Our Lady of Consolation were martyred in 1948 and two monks from Our Lady of Joy in 1951. I believe that the merit of this volume is its conciseness and fidelity to the written accounts by witnesses and survivors, and to hearsay. One important aspect is the author’s clarity regarding which monks were martyrs of Our Lady of Consolation and which monks survived the Death March. I believe an added feature is the numerous pictures of almost all the monks who were martyred at the hands of the Communists. One more interesting note is the description of an interview, on pages 128-32. The monks upheld that God had created the world and humans, while the Communist doctrine upheld that “Labor created the world” and described “the part played by labor in the transition from ape to man.” The appendix contains ten maps of Our Lady of Consolation, the Death March, Our Lady of Joy in its various locations, and Evacuation and Escape Routes. One last observation: the front cover of this book is simply white with black lettering, and on the back cover is a simple red cross. There are no biographical remarks on the author, only a picture of her on the back flyleaf. Are these not examples of Cistercian simplicity and humility? I am very grateful to have read this book. Because of it, I came to a greater knowledge and understanding of our Chinese monks and the terrible suffering they endured for the love of God and their brothers. Carol Dvorak, OCSO / Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey 8400 Abbey Hill Road, Dubuque, IA 52003-9501 2/28/2018 0 Comments Book review of "Perseverance Through Faith: A Priest's Prison Story" in the Catholic Herald, January 19, 2018 2/28/2018 0 Comments VIVA CRISTO REY! 萬歲耶穌基督國王!    Life as a priest in Communist China:
Arrested in 1955, Father Xibin “Matthew” Zhang was finally released from the notorious Tilanqiao prison in the autumn of 1978. A close friend and confidant of then-Bishop Pinmei "Ignatius" Kung, the two had both served Shanghainese Catholics, been arrested the same night, tried side-by-side at the same trial, and served their sentences in the same prison. After his release, Father Zhang was constantly watched by authorities, the secret police, paid spies and local busybodies in neighborhood associations. He was rearrested, in November 1981, and locked up in Shanghai's Number 1 Detention Center. He was later released. Six years later, in November 1987, he was arrested yet again. While under arrest, he suffered heart problems and was transferred to Tilanqiao Prison Hospital. After receiving treatment, he was moved to the Shelter of the Shanghai Archdiocese. Officially described as a nursing home for elderly clergy, the Shelter was, in reality, where priests were held under house arrest. Father Zhang and the other priests were closely monitored and subsequent reports about them were filed with the Public Security Bureau by Father Luxian Jin’s secretary, whose nickname was “Madame Bishop” because of her very close relationship with Jin, who had been illicitly consecrated the bishop of Shanghai, without papal mandate, by the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. Father Zhang died, on May 30, 1990, forever faithful to Christ, His Church, and to the Pope. VIVA CRISTO REY! 萬歲耶穌基督國王! 2/27/2018 0 Comments February 27th, 2018  Catholics suffered great persecution in Albania, the first atheist State, led by the Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction.
Catholicism and its practice was outlawed and considered a counterrevolutionary crime against the revolutionary State. For being a practising Catholic priest who secretly administered the Sacraments to the Faithful, Father Shtjefën Kurti was arrested several times, accused of crimes against the State. When someone reported to authorities that he had secretly baptized a child, upon the mother's request, he was arrested a final time. After a trial, during which he admitted baptizing the child, Father Kurti was led to the firing squad, where he was executed, on October 20, 1971. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/27/2018 0 Comments VIVA CRISTO REY! 萬歲耶穌基督國王!    Accused of counterrevolutionary activities, Father Zhongliang "Joseph" Fan was first arrested in 1955, along with then-Bishop Pinmei "Ignatius" Kung and other Shanghainese Catholics, for remaining faithful to the Pope and to Christ.
Sentenced to laogai and shipped to slave labor death camps in Qinghai, Father Fan survived and was released as a post-prisoner detained employee, in 1978. When Bishop Kung was released from Tilanqiao, in 1985, he was still under severe house arrest and was unable to fulfill his duties as Shepherd to his Flock. So, on February 27, 1985, Father Fan was consecrated a coadjutor bishop of Shanghai, to assist Bishop Kung, who had ordained him into the priesthood, on May 31, 1951. From the time the Chinese Communists took power, in 1949, until Bishop Fan's death, on March 16, 2014, when the Underground Catholic Church honored him with an "illegal" funeral, the regime and their henchmen hounded the priest, who forever remained faithful to Pope and to Christ. VIVA CRISTO REY! 萬歲耶穌基督國王!   "I am condemned as a priest, and I am glad to die for the faith in Christ," Father Marin Shkurti said after his death sentence was announced, on March 20, 1969, in Albania, led by the Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction.
"I'm not afraid. Dom Dedë (Malaj) taught me to die with his own dying. You believe that with this 'revolution' you can defeat our Catholic faith, but do not forget that the Church draws new strength from our blood that is being shed. The Church you are destroying will be revived." As he stood before his executioners, on April 1, 1969, he shouted, "You shoot me just because I'm a priest. I am innocent. Long live the faith in Christ! Long live Albania!" VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/26/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!   Bishop Zhimin “James” Su, the bishop of Baoding, has not been seen since his abudction by the Chinese communist secret police, in 1997, when they hunted him down.
The bishop, like other Faithful Catholics, was considered a counterrevolutionary, an enemy of the atheistic State, because he always refused the demands of the revolutionary Communist regime to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the always schismatic catholic church led by Communists, always separate from Rome. In 1994, by the time he was 60 years old, Bishop Su, like countless other Faithful in China, had already spent almost 25 years in hellish prisons and slave labor death camps because of his Faith and had already been arrested no fewer than five times. It is unknown if Bishop Su is still alive or if he has been killed during his incarceration. But it is most certain that he remained Faithful to Christ and to the Church. And it is time to RELEASE HIM! VIVA CRISTO REY!   Father Dedë Malaj was arrested on November 7, 1958, for politcal reasons: he was a practicing Catholic priest in a Socialist State, accused of being an enemy of the People, a traitor to the State. Albania was the first atheist State.
At the trial, while he glorified Christ and the Church, he also dared to criticize the government, led by the Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction. After he was sentenced to death, he was executed by gunshot, on May 12, 1959. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/25/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!   The family of Bishop Xueyan "Peter Joseph" Fan, the bishop of Baoding, found his body, in a plastic bag, dumped in the gutter in front of their home, in April 1992.
His emaciated body, with bones poking through his flesh, revealed visible signs of extreme torture. His legs were tied together with a white cloth, very tight and difficult to undo. From the marks on his legs, it appeared that the Communists had broken both. Each had a blackened color that appeared discolored from heat and pressure. His head, swollen from injury on his cheek and forehead. What had Bishop Fan done? Chinese Communist officials ordered that he renounce the Pope and become part of the Communist-led national church. Bishop Fan refused to renounce the Pope, and he also refused to participate in the Three-Self Reform Movement, later rebranded as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association -- Communist "catholicism." Because of his refusals, he was first arrested in 1958, and for the rest of his life, he suffered in slave labor death camps, prisons and extreme house arrest until his death, and through all the torture, he remained faithful to God, Church and Pope. VIVA CRISTO REY! 2/24/2018 0 Comments February 24th, 2018 Father Ndoc Suma was celebrating Mass, on December 8, 1946, when he was arrested by the secret police of the Albanian government, ruled by the revolutionary Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction.
Tried on false counterrevolutionary charges, he was sentenced to 30 years hard labor. While in prison, he suffered in silence, even when he received a paralyzing injury. Unable to labor for the State, authorities ejected him from the prison, and he died shortly after, on April 22, 1958. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/24/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!     Pope Pius XII -- the Great Defender of the Faith and Faithful -- was vociferously anti-Socialist, anti-Communist, which is why even today he is persecuted by Socialists, the Trotskyites who push for worldwide Permanent Revolution and have assassinated his character.
VIVA CRISTO REY! 2/24/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!    The Communist Party formed in Shanghai, China, in 1921.
After many bloody years of war, the Communist Party took control of mainland China, in 1949. Many times, the heads of the Communist Party ordered Shanghainese Bishop Pin-Mei "Ignatius" Kung to sever ties with the Vatican and to set up a national church, because the revolutionary Communists with their theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction wanted to control the people. Each time, Bishop Kung refused. On September 8, 1955, Bishop Kung was arrested for counterrevolutionary activities and for leading a counterrevolutionary gang, which meant that he was arrested for being a Catholic priest faithful to the Vatican and that he was a priest who administered to his parishioners -- Catholics. And behind bars, he continued to refuse their demands. Months after his arrest, authorities escorted the bishop to Shanghai's Canidrome, where he was ordered to make his "confession" before a mob of thousands ordered to attend the struggle session. Pushed up to the microphone to confess, Bishop Kung stood, wearing pajamas, with his hands tied behind his back. Into the microphone, he shouted, "Long live Christ the King! Long live the Pope!" The masses in attendance shouted back, "Long live Christ the King! Long live Bishop Kung!" Dragged back to Tilanqiao Prison, the bishop was not seen again until his public trial in March 1960. His life sentence was read aloud, on March 17, 1960. And then, he disappeared from the world for 30 years, faithful to Christ and Pope. VIVA CRISTO REY!    Father Ndue "Karl" Serreqi was interrogated by the secret police of the Albanian government, ruled by the revolutionary Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction.
They wanted information about a counterrevolutionary. Specifically, they wanted to know what that counterrevolutionary had said to the priest during the Sacrament of Confession. Father Ndue "Karl" Serreqi refused to break the Seal of Confession, was subsequently arrested, on October 9, 1946, tortured, sentenced to a life of forced labor, and ended up in Burrel Prison, a hell hole, where he died on April 5, 1954. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/23/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!   When the Mexican government ordered the closing of Catholic churches and outlawed the religion and its practictioners, Father Roman Adame Rosales continued his ministry in private homes.
Eventually, he was captured and tortured by federal soldiers. Tied to a post without water or food, after several days, he was taken to an open grave. There he was executed by a firing squad, on April 21, 1927. One of the soldiers, Antonio Carillo, refused to shoot the priest, so his fellow soldiers shot him, too. VIVA CRISTO REY!    Accused of being a secret agent sent by the Vatican, Archbishop Jul Bonati was arrested by the Albanian Communist regime's secret police.
During his trial, the archbishop of Durres said, “Our goal as religious men is to unite people in brotherhoods around the world. Catholicism’s enemy is the mistake, not the guilty; therefore, its enemy is Communism, not the Communists.” Sentenced to the Psychiatric Hospital of Durres, the scholar and intellectual was tortured physically, mentally and emotionally until his death,killed by mentally deranged patients, on November 5, 1951. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/22/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!  "I am a priest," responded Father Rodrigo Aguilar Alemán, when asked by the soldiers of General Juan B. Izaguirre to identify himself.
Ordered to be hanged in Ejutla's central square because he was a Catholic priest, outlawed during the Cristero War, he blessed his hanging rope, pardoned his executioners and gave his rosary to one of them. "Long live who?" asked a soldier who informed him that he could save himself by shouting, "Long live the Supreme Government!" Father Rodrigo Aguilar Alemán shouted, "Christ the King and Our Lady of Guadalupe!” three times before he was hanged for his Faith, on October 27, 1927. VIVA CRISTO REY!  On the night of May 9, 1947, three police officers barged into the bedroom of Father Mikel "Gasper" Suma and demanded that he show them where he hid the weapons.
"I don't have any weapons," the priest said, as one of the officers twisted the priest's arm and threw him on the bed. Seeing his rosary in the middle of the bed, Father Gasper grabbed his prayer beads and said, "Here! This is my weapon!" Accused of counterrevolutionary activities, he was arrested and locked up in the Great Prison of Shkodra, where he died on April 14, 1950, after suffering horrific torture inflicted by the Albanian government, ruled by the revolutionary Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/21/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Ordered by the government to operate his parish church as an arm of the Mexican government, separate from the Vatican, Father Miguel de la Mora de la Mora refused and went underground in order to minister to his parishioners. For a while he went undetected, until one day.
"You're the priest!" hollered a man who recognized the priest. "Yes, I am," admitted Father Miguel de la Mora de la Mora, dressed in peasants clothing, during the Cristero War, when Catcholicism and Catholics were outlawed. Arrested, the priest was presented to General José Ignacio Flores, who ordered the execution of the Catholic clergyman. As he walked to his death, by the stables, he pulled his rosary from his pocket and began praying. Ordered on top of a pile of manure, the priest continued to pray as his body received a spray of bullets, and he collapsed upon the manure, at twelve o'clock on August 7, 1927. VIVA CRISTO REY!    Father Jak Bushati was arrested, in April 1949, accused of having in his diocese a counterrevolutionary group that plotted against the Albanian government, ruled by the revolutionary Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction.
Brutally interrogated several times each day, he refused to give any information about his fellow Catholics or deny his Christian beliefs. Hanged on a tree for several days, his flesh was burned by torturers with red-hot iron rods. Pieces of wood were hammered under his fingernails. And his body was whipped until bloodied. Finally his body gave out, and he died, on September 12, 1949, in Shkodrë, Albania, faithful to Christ. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/20/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Father Mateo "Elías del Socorro" Nieves Castillo relocated to a mountain hillside where he administered the Sacraments to his parishioners during the night, so federal soldiers would not find him conducting Catholic activities deemed illegal by the Mexican government.
This was during the Cristero War (1926–29), the civil revolt by the Cristeros (Soldiers of Christ) fought against the anti-Catholic policies pushed by Plutarco Elías Calles, who enforced the anti-clerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church through persecution and execution. Countless faithful were martyred and 4,000 priests, marked as enemies of the State, were martyred in or exiled from Mexico for offering the outlawed holy sacrifice of the Mass. Eventually, Father Mateo "Elías del Socorro" Nieves Castillo was discovered in his mountainous religious retreat, arrested and executed by gunshot on the side of the road. "Long live Christ the King!" were his final words. VIVA CRISTO REY!   Archbishop Gaspër Thaçi was summoned by the Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who demanded that the priest separate from Rome and establish a national church for the Albanian government, ruled by the revolutionary Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction.
After refusing, the archbishop was arrested and placed under custody of the regime, and after great suffering, he died on May 26, 1946. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! 2/19/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Marcos Torres and his assistant were executed during the Cristero War (1926–29).
The civil revolt by the Cristeros (Soldiers of Christ) was against the anti-Catholic policies pushed by Plutarco Elías Calles, who enforced the anti-clerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church through persecution and execution. Countless faithful were martyred and 4,000 priests, marked as enemies of the State, were martyred in or exiled from Mexico for offering the outlawed holy sacrifice of the Mass. VIVA CRISTO REY! 2/18/2018 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!   A priest ordained only three years earlier, Father Margarito Flores Garcia requested to be sent to a parish where priests were being persecuted.
It was during the time of the Cristero War (1926–29), the civil revolt by the Cristeros (Soldiers of Christ) against the anti-Catholic policies pushed by Plutarco Elías Calles, who enforced the anti-clerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church through persecution and execution. Not long after arriving in the village of Atenango del Río, he was arrested, roped, and then dragged to be presented to the general, in Tulimán, where the order was given to execute the priest because of odium fidei, hatred of the Faith. Before the firing squad, Father Margarito Flores Garcia requested permission to pray, kneeled briefly, kissed the ground and stood. The guns fired, blasting his head, which was destroyed, on November 12, 1927. VIVA CRISTO REY!     Archbishop Nikollë Prennushi was arrested after he refused the demands of dictator Enver Hoxha to establish a national church, separate from Rome, for the Albanian government, ruled by the revolutionary Communist Party with its theophobic Socialist ideology of death and destruction.
Sentenced to 20 years, he died two years later, on March 19, 1949, after continuous horrendous torture, including being stuffed inside a nail-studded barrel and rolled around. VIVA CRISTO REY! RROFTE KRISHTI MBRET! |
AuthorTHERESA MARIE MOREAU is an award-winning reporter who covers Catholicism and Communism. Archives
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