Five bishops from China visited Belgium from July 16 to 19. They are leaders of the Chinese Catholic Church. They came at the invitation of Cardinal Jozef De Kesel (Malines Diocese) for four days of meetings and included a pastoral visit to the Church in Belgium. The visit was organized by the Verbiest Institute at the Louvain.
During their stay in Belgium the Chinese bishops met together with a delegation of confreres from the Netherlands. Three Dutch confreres met with a delegation of 13 priests and friends of the Bishop Schraven Foundation. Their purpose was to share with them their progress and interest in the canonization of Bishop Schraven and 8 other missionaries from the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and France who were murdered in Zhengding (Hebei, China) by the Japanese army in 1937. The missionaries refused to hand over hundreds of Chinese women — comfort women — who took refuge in the church and who were fleeing the Japanese soldiers who had taken control of Zhengding city. Vincent and Marja Hermans, expert-historians on the dossier Schraven, gave an extensive report on the dramatic events that occurred in Zhengding more than 70 years ago. The story of western these missionaries giving their lives to protect Chinese women from the aggressive Japanese soldiers made a deep impression not only on the bishops but on the whole audience. Everybody listened in silence, deeply moved and wondering this history has been kept secret from the world for so many years.
In the exchange between the bishops and the people present, everybody was touched by the witness of Fr. Wiel Bellemakers. As a boy of ten years old, he had already collected money for the church in China. His love never faded. On the contrary it was deepened as a result of this meeting in Louvain. At the end of the meeting the bishops expressed their strong support for the project of bishop Schraven.
In the picture: Fr. Wiel Bellemakers, Fr. Frans Bomers and Fr. Henk de Cuyper below the plaque of the Chinese Vincentian Xu who in the middle of the 19th century played such an important role when the French Vincentians handed over Inner-Mongolia to the Belgian CICM Fathers (Scheut). Fr. Frans Bomers was a missionary in Taiwan for 16 years. Last year Fr. Henk de Cuyper returned from mainland China where for almost 30 years he was teaching French and English at the request of the General Superior.
For the Chinese bishops, the highlight of this visit Belgium was their meeting with Cardinal De Kesel in Malines. All the Chinese bishops celebrated the Eucharist with Cardinal de Kesel.
Upon their return home, the bishops reported on their journey. The report contained an important message. For them the Eucharist with Cardinal de Kesel was a symbol of their reunification with the Universal Catholic Church … and, as such, an historical event.
The Dutch delegation meeting the Chinese bishops in Louvain
This event coincided with another historical happening, the return of the last Dutch confrere from Taiwan. After 57 years of missionary work among the Chinese people, Father Jan van Aert, CM, at the age of 84 took formal leave of his beloved people. In 1852 the first confrere left the Netherlands for China and in 2019 the last confrere returns home. During that period more than 100 Dutch confreres ministered on behalf of the Chinese people. One could also say that the reunification of the Chinese bishops with the universal Church is a fruit of all those confreres who ministered in China on behalf of the universal church.
