Mission To China

6 / 98 $2_00 • I TERM. WIB RA M FHLENBEh . 0 .. 8 .

MISSION TO CHINA

BENEDICTINE MISSION TO SAINT BENEOlCT S CON E T

~~ Muehlenbein, ;A. Sister M. Wibora O.S.B. .,...,, SAINT JOSEPH MJNNESOTA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Edhor-in-chicf: i ter Carol Berg. O.S.B. A sistant Editor: ister Mara Faulkner, O .. B. over De ign and Pi ture Lay ut: Si ter Johanna Becker, O .. B. Jligraphy: isrer Bautu Kunn. 0 . . B. Appendix: i ter Imogene Blatz. O.S.B. PYKIGHl '.£) 1980 f'RINTED BY ister of the Order of Saint Benedict ai nt J seph. Minne ota 1980 The orth entral Publi hing Company ai nt Paul. Minne ota

PREFACE Jubilee eem to neak up on ne. Fifty years; it eem incredible! The pa t Augu t 1979 marked the fiftieth anniver ary of our community· fir t con idering ending mi ionarie to China. Thi coming ummer 1980 we, and especially the i ter on Taiwan, will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the arrival f the fir t i ter in Peiping Peking), China. The f llowing i an account of the fir t twenty year of our life on the mainland before retreating. in the face f the Communi t take-over. to the i land of Taiwan - now known a the Republjc of China. Thi ummary may give our reader little knowledge of our fru tration a plan went awry, a circum tance forced change in our work, as war di rupted our live and put u into concentration camp and finally forced u to leave the mainland. But looking back on tho e twenty year . and the thirty that have followed ince J can di cern a ··Golden'· thread that connect all. It i God· wonderful Providence , Hi watchful care over u alway . With the period now facing Taiwan, we can but continue to pray with faith knowing that whatever happen , God, who i weaving the tapestry. know the full picture. He will c ntinue to watch over the i ter in Taiwan and the off boot of that foundation in Japan. May we beg our readers to join u in prayer: prayers of thank - giving for the favor of the past and prayer of petition for the future. Sister Wibora Muehle11bei11, 0.S.B. September, 1979

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page [ntroduction ix The Beginning J Kaifeng and the War 7 The Concentration Camp II Removal to Peiping 22 Freedom and Salvage 25 WilhdrawaJ 28 Taiwan Beginning 30 Appendjx 34

INTRODUCTION The history of Christianity in China is an intriguing one. Although there were contacts of Christianity with thi huge empire as early as the sixth century, the real breakthrough came only during the last part of the sixteenth century in the per on of Matteo Ricci, S.J. Ricci's ability to gain the confidence of the Chinese through his personality and hi learning remains fascinating. Of particular significance was his sensitivity to and his reverence for Chinese culture, tradition and rites. He based hi evangelization on whatever insights, methods and rites of Confucianism could be vehicles for the haring of the Good News. Though unfortunate , it is not surprising that Ricci's sen itivity to culture was misunderstood for centuries. not only by hi fellow missionaries but by Europeans generaUy. At that time it wa not the Church's approach to evangelization nor was it part of the East-West interaction in general. Humankind had not yet come to and is still struggling for, a global sense of unity which reverences the history , the diversity and the gift of each culture. As a result of the ensuing controver y among the missionatie about Ricci' s approach and because of the leadership which Rome took in suppressing it missionary activity came to be viewed by the Chinese as an imposition of foreign power. Missionary endeavors were, therefore proscribed at variou time during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We tern powers insisted on and obtained more freedom for their mi sionaries after 1842, following Western triumph over China in the Opium War and succeeding battles. The Republic of China in 1911

reaffirmed the proclamation of religious freedom originally made in l860 which made it possible again to realize some of Ricci's dreams. Universities, seminaries for the development of a native clergy, and centers of Catholic action were organized. Of aJI the subsequent developments, the most important was the revoking by Pius Xl, in 1939, of the "Prohibition of Rites" resulting from the early controversy. In 1924 the Pontifical University in Peiping (now known as Beijing) was established under the care of Benedictines. A few years later the Benedictine monks sought the help of American Benedictine sisters for this apostolate in China. It was at this point that our community was privileged to enter into the process of evangelization in this great nation. The following minutes of the meeting of the chapter of our religious corporation in which this decision was reached attest to the readiness of our sisters to respond to the caJI of the Church in this venture. The members of the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict met in general session on September I, 1929. The President, Louise Walz, announced that the meeting had been calJed for the purpose of considering the advisability of the Corporation's extending its activities to China. The work to be undertaken at this time was the conducting of schools of higher education, viz., high schools and colleges. On motion duly made and seconded the following resolution was adopted with only one dissenting vote: Whereas, our Holy Father, Pope Pius the XI, earnestly desires that Catholic high schools and colleges for the education of Chinese women and girls be established in China; and Whereas, we have been requested by the Reverend Dom Francis Clougherty, O.S.B., of the Catholic University of Peiping, as representative of the Apostolic Delegate at Peiping, to establish such a school in Peiping, China; Now Therefore Be It Resolved, that we exert every effort to secure the necessary funds for this enterprise and that as soon as ample funds are available to warrant the undertaking, a sufficient number of sisters be dispatched to China. INTRODUCTION Louise Walz, President Ethelburga Farrell, Secretary

Io 1949 the Chinese Communists completed their take-over of China and evangelization was again proscribed. Already in 1948 our sisters and most other missionaries as welJ, left China barely ahead of the Red Army. Grateful to be among the two million Chinese refugees that took up residence in Taiwan, some of our sisters remained there and are presently involved in forming a Benedictine Priory in the Taipei-Tanshui area. Though it still is a small community, one cannot help but wonder what the role of this monastic group is and may be in the development of Christianity in Taiwan or in the possible caJJ to resume evangelization in China. May the Lord, the Master of the Harvest, find us waiting and ready if and when that comes. This book celebrates not only fifty years of our involvement with the work of the building of the Kingdom of God in the Orient, it especially celebrates the faith-vision and faithexperiences that one of our sisters, Sister Wibora Mueblenbein had in responding to His call to work in that harvest. We thank God for aJI the gifts we have received by being part of this venture. Sister Evin Rademacher, O.S.B. Prioress of St. Benedict's Convent St. Joseph, Minnesota January, 1980 INTRODUCTION

THE BEGINNING At the request of two Chinese scholars that the Holy See open a university under Catholic auspices in Peiping, Pius XI asked the Benedictines of the Archabbey of St. Vincent, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to undertake this work. Begun in 1924, the university prospered, and by 1929 the Benedictine priests wanted Benedictine sisters to work with them and be responsible for the founding of a women's college in connection with " Fu Jen University" (as their school was known). The appeal to the Benedictine sisters of St. Joseph , Minnesota, came through Father Francis Clougherty. He had just been appointed the future chancellor of Fu Jen University. In August, 1929, Father Clougherty appeared at St. Benedict's Convent with a request for sisters to work in Peiping, China. On September I, the Community Chapter voted to accept this call and thus committed St. Benedict's Convent to mission work in Peiping, China. By the spring of 1930, Mother Louise Walz chose six sistersof whom I was one-from a list of a hundred volunteers to be the pioneers in the community's first foreign mission. These six were: Sister Francetta Vetter, head of the home economics department of the College of St. Benedict; Sister Regia Zens, head of the kitchen at St. Benedict's Convent: Sister Ronayne Gergen, an English teacher from CathedraJ High School, St. Cloud;

2 Peking • OUR C HINA MISSIONS 1930-1948 CHINA (Beijing) K'ai• -feng BENEDICTINE MI SSION TO CH I NA , •• .. ~ ••• , :; , ·~-00 IOO I I

Sister Rachel Loulan, a 6th grade teacher from St. John's School, Wahpeton, North Dakota; Sister Donalda Terhaar, a language teacher from the College of St. Benedict; Sister Wibora Muehlenbein, a mathematics teacher from St. Boniface High School, Cold Spring. The end of August, 1930, found us ready to leave St. Benedict's for China. In Holy Angels Cathedral , St. Cloud , His Excellency, Bishop Joseph Busch, bestowed mission crosses on us. The leave-taking from the Motherhouse took place on the afternoon of Sunday. August 31. Mother Louise Walz and Sister Leonida Meyers, subprioress, accompanied us to the coast. The first stage of the journey was by train from St. Cloud via Minneapolis, to Tacoma, Washington. Here, we were joined by Father Bonjface Martin from St. Bede's Abbey, Peru, Illinois, who was to accompany us to Peiping. On the morning of September 4, Father Boniface Martin , we six sisters, Mother Louise, Sister Leonida and three sisters from the community's two Tacoma missions drove to Seattle to the pier of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Line. Here we boarded a ferry for the trip to Victoria, British Columbia. In Victoria, we watched the arrival of the Ernpress of Japan , the newest ship of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Line and the largest ship to sail the Pacific up to that time. On September 10, the Empress of Japan arrived in Honolulu where a special welcome awaited the ship, for this was her ' 'maiden voyage. " At the pier, friends were waiting our arrival to welcome us and to show us some of the beauties of the island. The Empress left Honolulu the next morning and headed out over the Pacific to Yokohama, Japan, where she berthed on September 18. We spent a day of shore leave in Tokyo. The next stop of the Empress was Kobe, Japan , and here we disembarked on September 19. From here the trip continued on a smaller ship, the Keisan Maru , through the Inland Sea and the Yellow Sea to Tientsin , China. This little ship was a far cry from the luxurious Empress . It was a small freighter that sailed the Inland Sea and made regular calls at Tientsin , China. How many hold passengers there were below us, we never did find out. But first class passengers numbered twelve in all. Besides the six of us and 3 TH E BEGINNING

4 Father Boniface, there was a n American Colonel , Colone l Shand, and his wife on a vacation trip to China from the Philippines, and three Protestant missionaries. We sisters bad two cabins- two of us in one, four in the other. In the cabin I was in, all four of us could be in bed, lower and upper bunks, at one time, but onl y one could dress or undress at a time. After passing through a typhoon in the Yellow Sea, the Keisan Maru docked in Tientsin on the evening of September 24. Father lldephonse Brandstetter, prior of the Benedictine community at Fu Jen University in Peiping, was awaiti ng our arrival. With an excitement greater than a nything we had experienced up to that time, if that is possible, we entered the last stretch of our tri p from St. Benedict's to our new work in Peiping. It was Thursday, September 25, 1930. The trip from Tientsin, the port city, to Pe iping was to be a three-hour ride by train. The view from the window was a continual wonder to us. The ever-recurri ng groups of ho uses, built of mud bricks with thatched roofs and nestling inside the shelter of mud walls, looked for all the world like chicks trying vainly to hide under their mother's wi ngs. These were farm vill ages, for the farmers lived in groups and daily went out to work their fields. " Why the clustered homes inside a wall ?" we asked. " For protection," we were told. We were learning that walls were an important part of China, whether they were the mud walls around a country village, the brick walls around the compounds of rich landlords or merchants, or the mighty walls with massive gates and fourstoried gate towers of such cities as Pe iping. Between villages there spread out for our view the farm fields. Small fields, separated by narrow raised dykes which also served as paths, gave a patchwork quality to the landscape. It was to us a new beauty, nevertheless. However, used to viewing the Minnesota countryside, we noted immediately the absence of trees. Also, we noticed the innumerable little mounds that seemed to have wandered at will into the flat fields and settled there contentedl y among the growing crops. Both of these things were proof, if we needed proof, of the long history of China. Four thousand years of agriculture and an ever-growing population had made it necessary to cultivate every inch of available land. The trees and forests had Jong since disappeared . Also, since the story of man B ENEDICTINE MISSION TO CHI NA

is one of death as well as of life, what better resting place was there for those who had gone before than in the midst of the fields they bad worked in Life? These grave mounds, ever present to the eyes of their descendants, were a reminder to the Jjving of what they owed to these ancestors in filial piety , in upholding the fami ly name and traditions. After a three-hour train trip on September 25 , we arri ved, around noon, at the Chien Men station in Peiping. A delegation from the University - priests, professors, and students - was awaiting our arrival. We were quickly whisked off to the home the priests had prepared for us where dinner was ready. This home was a typical Chinese compound, with courtyards surrounded by one-story buildings, each building a room. Entrance to the compound was through a gate opening on a large street. The compound extended back to a gate leading to a small lane where deliveries of coal and other supplies could be made. The buildings to the sides of the courtyards backed on the rear walls of the neighbors' buildings. The neighbors couJd be heard coming and going, talking and laughing, but could not be seen. We sisters soon realized that our most urgent need was the study of the Chinese language. The priests introduced us to Mr. Hsu who had been trained as a teacher of Chinese for foreigners at the Protestant Language School in Peiping. The ideal thing would have been for us to attend this language school. But no Catholic missionaries bad attended thjs school up to that time, though aU nationalities and all religious denominations were welcome. At this time Peiping had not yet become the center for religious houses that it was to be later. Almost every province of the thirty some that made up the Republk of China bad its own dialect of the Chinese language. To work among these people, missionaries in the past naturally learned the dialect of the territory in which they were to work. But the official language of China was that of Peiping, known as Pekingese, or Mandarin. This was the language that was to be taught in the schools of all the provinces. Since more and more schools were being established by Catholic missionaries, it was becoming imperative that the priests and sisters in charge of these schools also know Mandarin. Peiping was the cultural center, the home of the official 5 THE BEGINNlNG

6 language, and so it was naturaJ that from aJI parts of China mission groups were turning their eyes toward Peiping with plans for opening houses of study for their young missionaries. Some were planning new language schools, others were hoping to transplant to Peiping already established schools from other parts of China. Here, in Peiping, instead of learning a locaJ dialect - whjch, according to the old Chinese proverb, was not understood eight miles from its center - they would learn the official language useful in all parts of China. There would also be the advantage of meeting with men destined for various parts of China, with men of different nationalities and from many religious orders. In years to come Catholic missionaries were to attend the Protestant Language School in Peiping. The first community of sisters to do so was the Franciscan Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception. After Sister Francetta, our superior, realized that these sisters were attending this school, the Benedictines (myself first and the new arrivaJs after that) aJso attended this school. Like every group who has ever studied the Chinese language, we have our amusing stories to tell. Pekingese has only four tones, other diaJects having as many as seven or nine. That is to say, the same word (which is not the same word to the Chinese but onl y appears so to us because we Romanize it the same way) may have various meanings according to the infle.ction or tone. Whenever missionaries meet and discuss the study of the language, stories of blunders will be told. One of our first was to ask for " trousers" when we wanted fruit. A puzzled expression followed by a twinkle in the eye were the only signs the cook gave that the inquirer had blundered . Another time the priests' car driver did snort with laughter when one of the sisters, in giving him directions, told him she wanted to go to the " duck" doctor when she meant the dentist. We spent the first two years in Peiping studying the language and getting to know the Chinese people and their customs. In September, 1932, a large compound was rented and young women were accepted for the first class of Senior Middle School (equivalent to a sophomore class in high school in the States). The plan was to add a class each year and then in the fall of 1935 accept the first class of university women. BENEDICT IN E MISS ION TO CHINA

Financial difficulties beset both the priests at the University and us sisters in our work. In June, L933, the Benedictine priests withdrew from the University and tbe Society of the Divine Word (S. V .D. Fathers) took over the University. We sisters continued for two more years, then also withdrew. The Motherhouse felt it could not meet the cost of operating a women's college. When the Benedictine priests left the University most returned to their respective Abbeys. But three of them accepted the invitation of Monsignor Joseph Tacconi, Vicar Apostolic of Kaifeng in Honan Province, and went to work in his vicariate. We sisters received the same invitation from His Excellency and in July, 1935, we too moved to Kaifeng, Honan Province. In September of that year, 1935, Sister Donalda Terhaar returned to the Motherhouse because of ill health. 7 KAIFENG AND THE WAR Tbe change from Peiping to Kaifeng was almost as big a change as had been our transptanting from the States to Peiping in the first place. We were surrounded by and were dealing with an entirely different class of people. Even their language, though basically Chinese, had its own colloquialisms; it was our first encounter with a " dialect" of which China has so many. It was not long before we were aware of the extreme poverty, by our standards, of these people and their need for medical care for both minor and serious ailments, but especially a care that would prevent a small thing from developing into something serious. From the start we had put aside the thought of a middle school. The Sisters of Providence already had one, and we were the newcomers. Our thoughts turned to a dispensary for the sick poor in connection with which there could be classes in doctrine KAIFENG AND THE WAR

8 and a catechist who could visit the people in their homes after dispensary hours. This was our suggestion to the Motherhouse together with a request for a nurse. We aJso asked for a music teacher. The announcement of the appointments made by our superiors delighted us: Sister Ursuline Venne from the music department of the College of St. Benedict and Sister Annelda Wahl, a graduate nurse from the St. Cloud HospitaJ, with years of experience in general nursing but especiaJly in the maternjty department of the hospital. Autumn of 1936 found us preparing for their arrivaJ. The front court of our neighbor's compound, the court from which a gate led straight to the street, was rented for the future dispensary. The new community now numbered seven. Sister Ronayne Gergen, and later I, too, accepted positions as English teachers at the Kaifeng ProvinciaJ University. Sister Raebel Loulan helped Sister Annelda Wahl in the dispensary that opened its doors January 2, 1937. April of that year brought the little community a deep sorrow. After a few days of illness, Sister Rachel Loulan died and was buried in the southern suburb of the city. That same year, 1937, war between China and Japan became a reaJity. On July 7, a shooting incident at Marco Polo Bridge near Peiping provoked the final step, and soon China was fighting Japan - from Peiping southward and from Shanghai northward. ln November, 1937, Nanking fell , and after that it was not a question of whether, but of when the fighting would reach Kaifeng. A committee composed of missionaries of aJl denomjnations and all nationalities working in the Kaifeng area was formed, with Father Francis Clougherty as the chairman. Tbjs Committee, the International Re)jef Committee of Kaifeng, was to play a very important role both before and after the fall of Kaifeng to the Japanese. Their first concern was to prepare refugee camps for women and children. Mission compounds were studied to determjne how many refugees each could house. Food supplies, firewood , oil, and other necessities were procured and stored for future use when and if Kaifeng fell. Two months before the faJl of Kaifeng, another need came to the attention of the Committee. Trainloads of wounded were passing through Kaifeng from the battlefields around Hsuchow B ENEDICTINE MISSION TO CHINA

to hospitals in the interior. These men needed first aid; they needed food ; they needed clothing and straw for bedding on the hard floors of boxcars. Also, the dead and dying needed to be taken off these trains. Finally a hospital was opened in Kaifeng for those from the trains who would not be able to endure the 24 to 48-hour trip to Hankow. Week after week this work continued. At first the trains came in any time during the day or night and we were on twenty-fourhour calL As the danger of bombing became greater, trains came in only at night. We no longer needed to be called; we just naturally showed up at the station each evening. We knew there would be at least one train of about eight hundred wounded; sometimes there were three. Everybody worked until 4 a.m., for then the trains had to move on if they didn't want to be caught by bombers. Going home at that hour, we would first have Holy Mass, then eat breakfast and go to bed. Soon the bombers were coming almost every day, weather permitting. The station became a pile of rubble, the platform on which we worked was fuU of deep holes and the roof of the platform was gone. The Committee put up mat sheds as shelters and supplied storm lanterns instead of the destroyed electric lights. From the beginning of April , 1938, when the Committee entered into thjg work in which all missionaries assisted, to the beginning of June, when Kaifeng fell , a total of 50,000 men received help. The refugee camps prepared for the women and children under the auspices of the International Relief Committee were ready , and every woman knew to which camp she and her children were assigned. A total of ten camps, all of which had been Protestant and Catholic mission compounds, were prepared to receive 5,800 people. Instead, the total count in the ten camps reached 15,406. There were two camps under Catholic auspices. The camp at Kuang Yu Boys' Middle School was under the direction of Father Ildephonse Brandstetter, Sister Ronayne Gergen and Sister Annelda Wahl , all Benedictines. This camp was prepared for 500 refugees; it admitted 2,200. The Camp at Ching I Girls' Middle School, under the direction of the Sisters of Providence, had prepared for 600; it admitted 1, 739. 9 KAIFENG AND THE WAR

JO The International Relief Committee of Kaifeng hoped the Japanese would respect these camps. They did. In fact, Japanese officers posted their own notices on the gates of the ten camps ordering their soldiers to respect the refugees and threatening punishment if they didn't. Not a woman or girl in these camps was molested. The Relief Committee had also prepared for medi cal attention and for an isolation hospital , since epidemics of cholera and typhoid might be expected. This hospital treated ninety patients with only three deaths, two from cholera and one from typhoid. But there was to be more work for the Committee. The Japanese troops entered Kaifeng on June 6, 1938, the main force marching straight through the city on its way to Chengchow, an important railroad junction. Here the railroad line from Peiping in the north to Hankow in the south crossed the line through Kaifeng to Sian in the west. The possession of this junction would have connected the Japanese advance through Kaifeng with their advance from Peiping in the north. It would also have laid open the approach to Sian in the west and Hankow in the south. But that night the Chinese broke the dyke of the Yellow River and the resulting flood destroyed the Japanese army. It set the Japanese advance to Cbengchow back four years. This flooding of the countryside also destroyed farming villages and crops, made hundreds of thousands homeless and threatened starvation for some ten million people. Again, the International Relief Committee of Kaifeng swung into action. It procured money, grain and beans, clothing and bedding for these people from mission stores and appeals at large; the International Red Cross, the Rotary Club, and the Chinese Central Government Relief were major contributors. This work was to continue until the beginning of the U .S.-Japanese War. In the years we sisters lived in Peiping and then in Kaifeng, we had lived in rented property. In November, 1936, we had made the first payment on a piece of property in Kaifeng which we wished to use for our future home and mission work. In June, 1937, we made the final payment and the property was ours. But with the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in July of 1937, there was no thought of building for the time being. By September, B ENEDI CTINE MISSION TO CHINA

1938, Kaifeng was a quiet, Japanese-occupied city. The workmen of Kaifeng were in dire need of work - instead of relief - and we wanted to build. Sister Francetta Vetter decided to make a trip to the States in order to collect funds for the planned convent. She returned a year later, September, 1939, and work on the property continued. When Sister Francetta returned, she brought with her Sister Flora Goebel , a nurse, to help with the dispensary, and Sister Vestina Bursken to help with the other work. In 1940 a third worker for the dispensary came, Sister Felicia Stager. Iu early 1941 we moved into our new home. In May of 1941 Sister Annelda Wahl suffered a sudden hemorrhage of the lungs. After three months spent on bed rest, she was strong enough to travel and it was decided that she shouJd return to the States for further treatment. By this time the situation was such that we did not know at what moment we might hear that Japan and the United States bad gone to war. Sister Annelda reached Shanghai near the end of September and secured passage on the last ship that sailed for the States on October 9 before war broke out between Japan and the United States. The beginning of the war found us numbering eight: four of the original six, and four who had come to China since 1936. 11 THE CONCENTRATION CAMP Then came Pearl Harbor and the sisters were enemy nationals in Japanese-occupied territory in China. The first knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor and a ·•new'' war came when Japanese officers appeared at the convent and ordered us into concentration camp. The period from December 8, 1941 (December 7 in the States), to August 17, 1945, was to be spent in three different concentration camps: the first camp - from DeTHE CONCENTRATION CAMP

12 cember 8, 1941, to March 21 , 1943, - was in Kaifeng (Honan Province); the second camp - from March 22, 1943, to August 22, 1943, - was in Weihsien (Shantung Province); the third and last camp-from August 22, 1943, to August 17, 1945, - was in Peiping (Hopei Province). It was a struggle during the years in these camps to have enough food and to keep reasonably healthy. Spiritual life - from the first camp on - was a priority. With several priests, it was usually possible to have daily Mass. The priests took turns giving conferences. When Holy Week came the first year in Kaifeng. permission was asked and obtained from the acting Vicar and Japanese officials to have the complete Holy Week services. Only once did the Japanese guards harass the sisters. We Benedictine sisters were interned in a small Baptist mission compound together with four Benedictine priests, ten Sisters of Providence and four Protestant women. One night, not content with marching around the house, the guards suddenly entered and tramped up the stairs. At the first sound of boots on the stairs, each of the nine Benedictine and Providence sisters in the largest room sat up like a jack-in-a-box. Someone turned on the lights and showed very excited and puzzled Japanese soldiers in the doorway with nine pairs of eyes riveted on them. It was the first time they had seen what nuns look like in night attire. Evidently it was quite a shock, for without a word they turned on their heels and went down the stairs and out of the house. There were no more night visitors, and after a reasonable hour the soldiers no longer tramped around outside the house either. The camp at Weihsien housed around two thousand "enemy nationals." The priests and sisters were among the first to be brought there , but new prisoners arrived daily for the next two weeks. Especially to be remembered was the evening that one hundred fifty priests (Belgians, known as the Scheut Missionaries}, the complete personnel of three northern vicariates, swung down the roadway and into the playground for their checking in. Closely following them were thirty-two Missionary Sisters of St. Augustine, also Belgian. A few days later about fifty Dutch Franciscan priests and twenty-four Dutch Franciscan sisters arrived. These sisters were soon affectionately known to all internees as " the Little Dutch Cleansers." With BENEDICTINE MISSION T O C HI NA

13 FIRST CHINA MISSIONARIES DEPART FROM SAINT BENEDICT'S, 1930. CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM: SISTERS W IBORA MUEHLENBEIN, REGlA ZENS, DON ALDA TERHAAR, RONAYNE GERGEN, FRANCETTA VETTER, RACHEL LOULAN.

14 ORIGINAL GROUP IN FRONT OF THE CONVENT IN PEKI NG. FRONT: SISTERS REGIA ZENS, FRANCETTA VETTER, WIBORA MUEHLENBEIN: BACK: SISTERS DONALDA TERHAAR, RONAYNE GERGEN, RACHEL tOULAN.

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY (FU JEN) IN PEKING, DESIGNED AND BUILT BY THE BENEDICTINE FATHERS. T HE ROOM OF SISTER REGIA AND SISTER WIBORA IN THE PEKING CONVENT COMPOUND WITH A WALL OF W INDOWS FACING H IE COURTYARD. I f I I ' I 1 ., .... ~,~

ONE OF THE BUILDINGS OF THE CONVENT AND SCHOOL AT K'Al-FENG. T ll E COMMUNITY AT K'Al-FENG IN 1940: SISTERS REGIA ZENS, RONAYNE GERGEN. URSULINE VENNE, VESTINA BURSKEN, ANNELDA WAHL, FLORA GOEBEL, WIBORA MUEllLENBEIN. FRANCETTA VETTER.

~,>.) I lflfl II I, I • ?T BU RIAL OF SISTER RACHEL L.OULAN AT K'Al·FENG, SPRING 1938. MEDICA L SERVICE QTVEN TO WOUNDED CHINESE SOLDIERS AT K.Al-FENG. LEFT: BROTHER ILDEl'HONSE, o.s.B., SISTER FRANCETTA, SIST ER WrBORA ; AT RIGHT, SISTER URSULINE AND A SISTER OF PROVIDENCE.

18 their veiJs pinned back and their habits pinned up, they were ready for a ny work, even the hardest and dirtiest. It was pitiable to see the c ivilians come in . Mothers a nd fathers had childre n in their arms or clinging to their hands; others supported men who had suffered at the hands of the Japanese. We were lined up along the roadside and could not help them or speak to them until they had been checked in. The civilians included American and British Protestant missionaries and British, Dutch, and Belgian business men and their families. There were engineers from the coal mines to the north , personnel from the foreign banks in Peiping, Tientsin, and other cities. There was a n American man with his two half-Japanese daughters. Though his Japanese wife a nd their two sons requested to be allowed to go with the husband and father, the Japanese authorities insisted that they were not interning their own nationa ls, so this family was broken up . There were Chinese and 1 ndians who, because of birth in a British territory, held British citi zenship. There was an American with his Mongolian wife and seven children. There were women who had never done an hour·s work in their lives: there were women who couJd not understand their own children for the childre n had been raised by Chinese amahs (women servants) and spoke only Chine e: there were wome n whose husbands waited on them, washed their clothes. These women remonstrated with the sisters when they saw the sisters washing and ironing and mending the priests' clothing. There were, in short, many types and kinds of people. The final count of internees at Weihsein was near two thousand . of which four hundred ten were priests a nd brothers and one hundred sixty were sisters. Each group of arrivals in the camp was asked to designate one member to represent the group to the authorities. Our group of missionaries chose Father Francis Clougherty. As other groups came, they chose their leaders. From these leaders there was formed a committee to run the camp. Committee members negoti ated with the Japanese; they decided problems of housing; they made out work schedules: they decided what things needed doing and set out to find ways and means of getting them done. This often put them in a cross fire between Japanese demands and the internees· complaints. Even a policeman was appointed with aJJ B ENEDI CTINE M ISSI ON T O C HI NA

the powers that could be given him under such circumstances. The people were divided into three groups according to the part of North China they had been brought from, and each group ran its own kitchen and dining room. Everything else was handled in common. Everyone had to do a certain amount of generaJ work for the welfare of all. Not even the care of young chHdren excused a mother from doing her share of this work. Some of the sisters bad the job of rounding up young children and taking them to the playground for a few hours, thus leaving the mothers free to do their appointed tasks. Classes were organized for the grade school children and most of the teachers were sisters. Life was a never-ending round of chores. Engineers got to work to make necessary repairs and to put in necessary fixtures. The water problem was serious and had to be solved if the inmates of the camp were not to die of water-borne diseases. A large group of people depended on a few shallow wells full of surface water. To be safe for drinking, this water had to be boiled, but the Japanese had made no provisions for this. Among the debris in the yards were boilers and plumbing fixtures of various kinds that the Japanese had ripped out of the buildings. The engineers salvaged these and soon had a system for each kitchen to supply the people with boiled water. These were makeshift, often primitive arrangements but they filled a need. Another group, led by a priest who had been a baker before he was a priest, tore down the ovens the Japanese had installed for the baking of bread and rebuilt them so that the men could bake bread for the internees. If there was anything wrong with the bread, it was not the men's fault; the blame was on flour which often contained not a smaJI percentage of sand. This was wartime and so it wasn't surprising that the food supplied by the Japanese failed to meet the minimum needs of the people, especially of the children and the older people. The internees in charge of the kitchens did the very best with what was supplied them but there were just too many mouths to feed. When the first internees arrived, there were Chinese workmen still coming and going, finishing off the jobs of building outdoor toilets, making brick stoves and other such jobs. They smuggled in eggs and almost under the eyes of the Japanese succeeded in 19 THE CONCENTRATION CAMP

20 selling them to the internees. Later a brisk sale went on, over and th rough holes in the bric k walls that surrounded the compound. An English Trappist was among the leaders in getting in the supplies Lhe mothers needed so desperately for their children. He was known and liked by a ll in camp. The Japanese we re not entirely ignorant of what was going over and through the wall; somebow, they didn't succeed in catching anyone red.handed. But one night they did catch Father with things that had just come in . Tbe Japanese had taken for their own use a small compound , withjn the large compound, that contained what had been the private homes for mission personnel. In this section there was a small shed of some kind into which they Jocked Father. Bread and water was his assigned fare, but no prisoner ever fa red better. Ma ny a dai nty made from precious, boarded supplies found its way to him through a little window. The day he was released and reappeared in the dining room a mighty cheer went up. But the supposed reason why the Japanese released him was also more or less a joke. The story goes that be insisted on singing the Divine Office out loud, including Matins, at midnight. After several nights of this, it is said, the Japanese released him in pure self-defense: their ears wouldn't take a ny more. Soon the camp committee convinced the Japanese that if they wanted to stop illegal traffi c in eggs and so on they would have to open a little shop or canteen and allow the internees to buy extra food. Each internee was given a ration card. The shop was open only whe n there was something to se ll . For example, over the grapevine would come the word: one orange for each internee today, or one egg, or so many ounces of peanuts. Then there was a gathering of ration cards and a hurrying to the "store.'' Among the things obtainable at times were jujubes, a fruit that looks like a nd , if you have a good enough imagination, may taste like dates. Whe n these were for sale, there was sure to be a sign in the dining room asking for donations of these jujubes to the kitchen. The same was true of orange peelings. For breakfast, the Japanese refused to suppl y any food and the kitchen staff had to contrive something. They made a kind of mush from dry bread and flavored it with anything they could lay ha nds on: a little cinnamon, orange peelings, and the jujubes. BENEDI CTI NE M ISSION T O C HI NA

People were losing pounds without the worry of modem diets. Also, aside from the problem of contaminated water, sanitary conditions were such that dysentery and other intestinal diseases were soon common. More food and more nutritious food was needed as well as better sanitary conditions under which to prepare it. Flies swarmed over everything. With open cesspools in all parts of the compound, and with two thousand people living in such close quarters, what could one expect? Though the internees were busy , there was still the problem of recreation and bobbies. The first step toward "extra-curricular" activities was made by the Belgian priests. In camp with Americans, they were going to use this opportunity to perfect their English. They had studied it in school , much as high school students study Latin or French , but they had never had a n opportunity to use it. The American sisters were not yet unpacked and settled before these priests were requesting classes in English. The camp committee organized these classes, as well as classes in Chinese, in other languages, and in anything else a group requested. There seemed to be no problem finding teachers among the internees, and famous teachers, too. Father Beatus, a Belgian Franciscan, taught Chinese grammar. A Protestant minister taught a class in newspaper Chinese. There were classes in art appreciation, in sketching and painting, and in philosophy. For forma1 entertainment a committee was organized. Some of the programs put on really showed the talent to be found in the camp. An orchestra was formed and gave concerts. Very little music had been brought to camp; but, from piano scores, Sister Ursuline orchestrated pieces for the various instruments. Piano and vocal recita1s were given and ballet dancing proved delightful entertainment. Best of all was the rendering of Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah , taught to a chorus of about 100 singers by Mr. Grimes, an internee. Sister Ursuline did much of the orchestration for this and helped copy music for the singers. She, Sister Francetta, and Sister Ronayne were in the chorus. Spiritual life was not lacking but four hundred priests posed a problem for daily Masses. The Japanese were not interested in helping solve this problem. Masses were said in every available com er, usually three Masses at each makeshift altar. Wine , altar breads, and candles for so many Masses posed another 21 THE CONCENTRATION CAMP

22 problem. Wine was used so sparingly that ninety Masses from one bottle was the usuaJ count. Only one candle was used and this was lit at the offertory a nd put out immediately after the communion of each Mass. Once a week there was a spirituaJ confere nce for the sisters. But Sunday was something to look forward to. That day the internees were allowed the use of the auditorium. First the Catholics had a High Mass, or a Pontifi cal Mass, which was quickly followed by a Protestant service. Other Protestant denominations held services during the afternoon and evening. Sunday Mass was always as solemn as possibl e. Usually one of the six bishops present in the camp officiated with the other five , in all their regalia, on the stage which served as sanctuary. The Scheut Fathers took charge of the singing. Every Sunday found the windows crowded with non-Catholics who said only one word when the services ended, '·Beautiful." Several conversions among the internees resulted from these Masses. REMOVAL TO PEIPING At the beginning of the fifth month in the Weihsien camp, word came that all Catholic missionaries were to be moved from this camp and interned in religious houses in Peiping. It had taken months of negotiation in Rome, but the Japanese had finaJJy agreed to the Vatican's request. The missionaries were divided into two groups for traveling, one to leave camp on August 15 and the other on August 22. A few of the sisters and priests were not transferred to Peiping for the last period of internment. Five sisters, Franciscans from Milwaukee , Wisconsin, remained as teachers for the children. Among the priests who remained was Father Ildephonse Rutherford, a Franciscan. BENEDI CTINE MISSI ON TO CHI NA

The Apostolic Delegate had appointed him chaplain for the camp. Six Belgian priests also remained. They had worked with Chinese bishops and didn't feel they could add the burden of their support in Peiping to the already great burden of these Chinese bishops. 1n the northwest corner of the city of Peiping is a lane, a very crooked lane indeed, for as its name indicates, it has eight turns. Pa-Ta-Wan was not a very Jong Jane, but it was to be a very important lane in the lives of the thirty-two Belgian Missionary Sisters of St. Augustine and of the forty-eight American sisters representing six communities who were brought there to the Convent of Christ the King in August, 1943. This was the convent of the Spanish Community, Daughters of Jesus. These sisters were to " host" eighty internees until the end of the war. The internees were to be responsible for their own support. Arrangements bad been made with the Japanese obliging them to supply a half bag of flour, thirty pounds of rice and ten ounces of sugar for each internee each month. The Japanese kept to this agreement to the end of the war. At first the internees all ate in the same dining room, the Americans doing the cooking one week, the Belgians the next. The first arrangement had been for a bakery to bake the bread for the internees at Christ the King Convent. But why give the flour to the bakery when it could be made to go so much farther? The Scheut priests, who were living at their own language school, soon took over the baking of bread for the Belgian sisters in exchange for the mending of their clothes. Then the Franciscan Language School, where the American priests were Ji ving, offered to bake the bread for the American sisters. This was the beginning of the breakup of the dining room arrangement. Soon each community was doing its own cooking in the open courtyards on little stoves that burned coal balls. We Benedictine sisters shared a courtyard with the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis. Two comers were used as kitchens - one for each community. Coal balls were made from powdered coal, clay and water. It was not unusual to have the yard covered with these little balls, about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, drying in the sun. Each community also had its time for the use of the common laundry, and the result was that two days of each 23 REMOVAL TO P EIPING

24 week the yard was hanging full of wet clothing. The Hospital sisters went into the business of making starch from wheat for their headdress. Soon big crocks of fermenting wheat could be found in the yard. It was a very busy place indeed. Here, as in Weihsien, classes were organized. The Jesuit Language School supplied the teachers and the study of Chinese was continued. Twice a week at first, less frequently later, the Japanese came to take roll call. If a sister was sick they insisted on seeing her. The rest had to remain lined up while the superior took the guards to the bedroom. From these officials, passes were obtained to go to the hospital of the Sisters of Charity or to the dentist. It was not long before the internees realized that they had brought unwelcome intestinal guests along from Weihsien: ascaris, amoebic dysentery , and even one case of liver fluke. The Sisters of Charity were kept busy for quite some time as were the French doctors connected with the hospital. Life soon fell into a routine. Again, as at Weihsien, there bad to be entertainment. An orchestra was formed and there was singing. Monsignor Zanin, the Apostolic Delegate, loved music and he would notify Mother Mary, superior of the Daughters of Jesus, of his approaching visits, remarking that he hoped there would be singing and music. Communities had their own special feasts, and there were feasts for all. When the Dutch Franciscan priests presented an original play for the group at the Franciscan Language School, it didn't take much to convince them that they ought to come to Pa-Ta-Wan and put it on for the sisters. BENEDICTI NE MISSION T O CHINA

25 FREEDOM AND SALVAGE The second year of internment at Pa-Ta-Wan was almost over, Atomic bombs had been dropped on two Japanese cities. On August 17, 1945, the sisters learned in a dramatic way that the war was over and that they were no longer "prisoners" of the Japanese. It was Friday afternoon when a plane flew low over Christ the King Convent dropping dozens of leaflets. One side of these leaflets was in Japanese, the other in English. They informed the internees of Christ the King Convent that the war was over, that relief was coming, that the Americans knew where the prisoners were and that the prisoners should please remain where they were or the Americans could not find them. The leaflets were signed by General Albert Wedemeyer, Commander of China Theater and Chief of Staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. After dropping these leaflets, the plane headed to the airfield and five officers parachuted into the field. All over China teams were dropped into prisoner of war and civilian internee camps that afternoon. It was dangerous for the men, for no one knew what the response of the Japanese, who were still in control of the airfield, would be to these men dropping from the skies. But the Japanese put up no resistance and the following Sunday, August 19, five American officers visited with the internees at Christ the King Convent. They had come from the American airbase at Sian, in west China. On Monday the first plane came in with more officers and equipment. The first planes in took back to Sian those refugees from the prisoner of war camps most in need of medical attention. From Sian, these were then flown over the " Hump" to India from where they were repatriated to the States. By the end of the first week it was decided that the rest of the prisoners who wished to be repatriated would wait for passage by ship. The U.S. fleet would soon reach Tientsin. Among those sisters evacuated by the fleet were Sister Felicia Stager, Sister Vestina Bursken, and later Sister Ursuljne Venne. FREEDOM AND SA L VAGE

26 The planes from Sian kept coming into Peiping, and the Colonel in charge. rather than have the planes return to Sian empty. offered missionaries the chance of going to Sian on condition that after arrival there they would not depend on the military to take care of them. Five Sisters of Providence and I took advantage of this offer. From Sian, Bishop Megan, S.V.D. , helped this group reach Kaifeng. The Sisters of Providence had three mission stations to return to, two schools and a novitiate that the Chinese sisters had kept intact for four years. But the convent of the Benedictine sisters had been taken over by the Japanese and used as consular offices for this area. AU Japanese property, reaJ and personal, would naturaJly fa ll to the victors. How was our property, not only the convent and other buildings, but also our furniture to be saved for us? This was the problem we had foreseen in Peiping and that now faced me on my return to Kaifeng. It was decided I would return, stay with the Sisters of Providence, and try to regain control of the convent from the Chinese who were confiscating a ll property the Japanese had used. A month after my return, with the help of an Italian brother, Brother Francisco, I succeeded in reclaiming it. There followed two months of repairing, refurbishing and refurnishing of the convent for the return of the sisters still in Peiping. There was no communication between Peiping and Kaifeng. Tn Peiping the sisters received none of my letters until late December. I received none of theirs until January. Unable to contact the sisters in Peiping. I rented the convent for four months to twelve American officers and moved back with the Sisters of Providence. On April l of 1946, the American officers left Kaifeng for Shanghai. The Benedictine convent was free to receive the sisters from Peiping. but there was no transportation from Peiping. (At this time, there were only four Benedictine sisters left from the original group; three in Peiping and one in Kaifeng. Sister Flora had been repatriated in the fall of 1943. Sisters Felicia, Vestina, and Ursuline had returned to the States before Christmas of 1945.) Communication and transporta6on between Peiping and Kaifeng was almost impossible. Cival War broke out in 1946 between Mao Tse Tung's Red Army and Chiang Kai-Shek's NationaJist Army. Although the BENEDI CTINE MISSION TO CHINA

two leaders bad cooperated agai nst the Japanese- albeit reluctantly and sometimes onl y on paper - they now fought for control of China. Most of north China was in the hands of the Red Army by the summer of 1946. From Sha nsi Province in the west through Hopei and Shantung Provinces was a strip through which the Communists were moving back and forth . They made it impossible for the Nationalist government to take over this territory. They prevented the rebuilding and use of the two raiJroad lines north to Peiping: one from Shanghai via Nanking, the other from Hankow. The military tied up any immediate transportation facilities, preventing free movement of goods and people in the area. Added to the worries of Sister Francetta and her two companions, Sister Regia and Sister Ronayne, was the fact that although I had flown off in August there had been no report from me during the followi ng four months. There are some who might glibly say " No news is good news." One can hardly blame them if they didn't feel that way. What had happened to me? Had r succeeded in reclaiming our property? In what condition had l found the buildings? Did we have anything or nothing in the line of furniture? These were some of the questions they asked themselves. Added to that, and many other little nagging worries, was the fact that the Motherhouse could not understand why I was alone in Kaifeng: why the others were not also in Kaifeng; why they were staying in Peiping. In Peiping during this time our sisters were teaching private English classes. They also met many of the marines who came into the city and managed to give them a little taste of " home." But, finally , one Saturday in August of 1946, Sister Francetta managed to get on a military plane to Hsinhsiang on the other side of the old bed of the Yellow River. From there , after a twentyfour-hour trip by jeep because offtoods, she reached Kaifeng. She immediately began making plans to bring the other two sisters to Kaifeng. In the meantime, they were living with the Providence Sisters in their new compound in Peiping. ln early October Sisters Regia and Ronayne left Peiping by plane for Hsinhsiang. An American, Captain Davies, borrowed the Bishop'sjeep to bring the sisters to Kaifeng, a three-hour trip this time. Our little community was now complete and could carry 27 FR EEDOM AND SALVAGE

28 on full religious life. Sister Ronayne and I returned to work at Honan University. Shortly after Christmas, Sister Ursuline returned from the States. WITHDRAWAL In September, 1947, Mother Rosamond Pratschner visited us in Kaifeng. Already the Communist threat against Kaifeng was strong, but she managed to reach Kaifeng after a three-day train trip from Shanghai. She brought with her Sister Mariette Pitz to replace me, as I would return to the States with Mother. There were three of us, including Sisters Regia and Ronayne, who had oot been back to the States since the autumn of 1930. Plans were made for me to return to Kaifeng in May, 1948, so that Sisters Regia and Ronayne might have a turn at their first visit home since leaving for China in 1930. Mother Rosamond bad decided to go to Peiping to meet three Chinese women who wished to join the community. But this proved impossible; in fact, if it hadn't been for the help of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, she and I would not have reached Shanghai for the PAA flight we were booked for. UNRRA flew us to Shanghai. Mother Rosamond and I reached Tacoma on Halloween of 1947. My proposed return to Kaifeng was cancelled upon hearing of Kaifeng's fall to the Communists in April, 1948. The Chinese women who wished to join the community did succeed in coming to the States. Two reached St. Benedict's shortly after Mother Rosamond and I had returned there in October of 1947. These candidates received the habit the following June and the names Sister Bernard Marie and Sister Marie Jose. One week before her profession the following July, (1949) Sister Marie Jose died. The BENEDICTINE M ISSION TO CH I NA

third woman arrived in the summer of 1948 and received the habit and the name Sister Barbara in June , 1949. These were the first Chinese women to join the Sisters of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota. It was in April of 1948 that our sisters withdrew from Kaifeng. No American missionary could afford to fall into the hands of the Communists; all missionaries were later to be in danger at their hands but, at this time, being an American was a greater crime than being a missionary. The five Benedictines, the Sisters of Providence, and some Protestant missionaries found themselves heading for Shanghai in the bucket seats of a C-47 with their luggage securely strapped in the aisle between them. The Kaifeng chapter of our lives seemed finished, at least for the time being. What was to be the next move for our little group? We couldn't remain in Shanghai indefinitely. Groups of refugee missionaries were now leaving Shanghai for other assignments. Some went directly to new work in Japan, the Philippines, or other countries of southeast Asia. Others were ordered to return to their own countries, to their Motherhouses. Somehow, the first refugees from the Communist drive did not think of going to Taiwan. In Shanghai, our sisters first went to live with the Social Service Sisters. From here Sisters Regia and Ronay ne left for their planned home visit. Later the rest moved to the women's section of Aurora University , under the hospitality of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. The three who remained in Shanghai , Sisters Francetta, Ursuline, and Mariette, could never praise Mother Fitzgerald and the Religious of the Sacred Heart enough for the charity and love with which they received and housed refugees and missionaries. At one time they were giving shelter and a home to twenty-three different communities. 29 W I T H DRAWAL

30 TAIWAN BEGINNINGS The opening of the fall term in 1948 found some of the refugee sisters, including our three Benedictines, teaching in the various schools of the Madames. In October of 1948 Sister Francetta first heard about a girls' school in Tainan, Taiwan, that was looking for a religious community to operate it. After she and Sister Ursuline visited the island and the school, the proposition was presented to the Motherhouse. Permission was granted for the move and in December Sister Francetta was on her way. Feeling that they owed much to the Religious of the Sacred Heart who had taken them in and who had kept them so many months, the other two sisters didn' t want to walk out and leave their classes before the end of the term. Therefore it was decided that Sister Francetta, Father Gerard and Brother Alphonse (Benedictines) would go ahead to Kuang Hwa Girls' Middle School in Tainan, Taiwan. Sister Ursuline and Sister Mariette followed in January , 1949, after the close of the school term. Kuang Hwa Girls' Middle School was classified as a private school in contrast to public schools which were governmentowned and operated. The principal was a Catholic and had received part of her education at a sisters' school in the States ~ she wanted sisters to help in the school. Three of the sisters were in Taiwan and three in the States; Kuang Hwa seemed the answer to hopes of reestablishing the community in China. It was decided that for the rest of the school year the three sisters would content themselves with teaching English and music in the school without taking over the running of the school. The language barrier alone was a good reason for this plan. Official Chinese, which the sisters understood , was not spoken in Taiwan ; rather, these people spoke Taiwanese and Japanese. On May 22, 1949, Sister Regia, Sister Ronay ne and I left the Motherhouse of St. Benedict's for the trip to Taiwan. There were misgivings as reports predicted that the Communists would soon takeover not only mainland China but Taiwan as well. Ignoring all objections, we reached Tainan, Sunday morning, July 17, 1949. B ENEDI CTI NE M ISSION TO CH I NA

Now we sisters were again a community of six and could take over the management of Kuang Hwa Girls' Middle School. ln Taipei , Ignatius Ying was head of National Taiwan University" s foreign language department. He had been a friend of the sisters from the day we reached Peiping in 1930, when he was head of the English department at Fu Jen University. National Taiwan University had been founded by the Japanese and then was taken over by the Chinese Nationalist Government. Teachers and students were being recruited both from Taiwan and fro m the mainland. Looking for teachers for the English department, Ignatius Ying approached a mutual friend of his and the sisters. This friend told him. ··Your sisters are in Tainan." On August 15. Mr. Ying appeared in Tainan and pleaded with the sisters to leave Tainan and the middle school and join the staff of National Taiwan University in Taipei. After much discussion we told him we would suggest to Mother Richarda Peters that Sister Ronayne and Sister Mariette go to Taipei and teach at the University while the other four would remain with Kuang Hwa Girls' Middle School in Tainan. In October, Sisters Ronayne and Mariette were instaJled in a house belonging to the Uni versity in Taipei. At the time Taipei was almost without priests. At the university the sisters found Father Marus Fang Hao, a Chinese secular priest, teaching in the history department. Father said his Mass each morning at 6:30 a. m. in the home of a Catholic fami ly near the university. It was a half-hour walk for the sisters each morning. After Mass, they went the short distance to the university for their classes. Sisters Ronayne and Mariette were not Jong left in doubt as to whether they would have a busy and profitable year. Work piled up; besides their uni versity classes they were soon asked to teach English to a group of doctors preparing for advanced work in the States. Students made inquiries about religion classes and requested special English classes in the sisters' home. At Christmas, the first two converts they had instructed were baptized. Up to this time the whole of Taiwan had been one Prefecture under the direction of Monsignor Joseph Arregui, a Spanish Dominican, as Prefect Apostolic. In November, shortly after the sisters' arrival in Taipei, it was announced from Rome that the northern part of the island. including the country of Taipei, had 3 1 TAIWAN BEGI NN I NGS

32 been erected into a separate prefecture and that Monsignor Joseph Kuo had been appointed Prefect Apostolic of this new division. He was installed as Prefect on March 5, 1950. Sisters Ronayne and Mariette were present for this installation, and he had a request to make of them: could he open a semi-public chapel in their home? He himself said the first Mass there on March 19, 1950, and thus was formed St. Joseph's Parish. (Later the parish bought land just three blocks from the sisters' home and built a church.) Both in Tainan and in Taipei the sisters found their work plentiful, challenging, and interesting. Notices arrived, however, from the American Consulate teUing them that the consulate could not be responsible for them in case the Communists tried to take Taiwan. The notices insisted that the sisters prepare to leave the island and get permits to enter Japan. The sisters applied to General McArthur for entrance permits to Japan. By the end of January. 1950, the permits had reached the consulate in Taipei but the sisters waited, not wanting to break up the school year either in Kuang Hwa or in National Taiwan University. As the school year came to a close, the sisters began packing and crating things. The board of Kuang Hwa was notified of their withdrawal from the school and the sisters inquired about passage to Japan. Four tickets were secured for a boat sailing from the northern port of Keelung. It was decided that Sisters Francetta and Regia, Father Gerard and Brother Alphonse would go ahead and that Sister Ursuline and I, from Tainan, and Sisters Ronayne and Mariette from Taipei would follow two weeks later. The first group left on Sunday, June 25, 1950 - the very day that North Korea launched an attack on South Korea and the United Nations, the United States primarily , found itself at war. The American Consul in Taiwan now insisted that the rest of the sisters not go to Japan. With the outbreak of the Korean War, the Seventh Fleet moved into the Taiwan Strait and for the time being Taiwan was safe. Sisters Francetta and Regia reached Japan safely and joined the Benedictine priests at St. Anselm's Church in Meguro, Tokyo. Mr. Ying was quite agitated that the sisters were withdrawing from the university. He wrote a long, pleading letter to the sisB E NEDICTINE MISSION TO C H I NA

ters in Tainan and one to Mother Richarda in the States asking that the sisters stay in Taipei. After more than a month of waiting, it was decided that three sisters would stay in Taipei and three would be in Japan. Sister Ursuline chose to join Sister Francetta and Sister Regia in Tokyo whjle I joined Sisters Ronay ne and Mariette in Ta ipei, to teach at National Taiwan University. We were now three in Japan and three in Taiwan. How did we feel about the change that had come into our li ves? It was a little as though we had been playing chess with God, with each side moving chess pieces, but we blindly. When the play was finally exposed it was as though God said , '·There. I wanted Benedictine sisters in Japan and I certainly had to do some clever playing to get what I wanted." I hope I don't sound irreverent. But, definitely we felt that God had had a hand in the arrangement and that each one of us was placed just where God wanted her. With this I end my story of the years from 1930 to 1950. Since then the work in both Taiwan and Japan has developed wonderfulJy. The work in both countries is now in the hands of Chinese and Japanese sisters. I remained in Taiwan until 196 1 when I came to the States. l never returned to Ta iwan but spent the next years editing our mission paper, Saint Benedict's Missions, and doing other work for our missions. But I can rejoice from afar with the developments in both mission fields that are the result of our trip to China in 1930. 33 TAIWAN BEGIN NINGS

34 APPENDIX APOSTOLA TES OF SISTERS SERVING IN CHINNTAIWAN, R.O.C. MISSIONS 193~1980 Mainland China ( 1930-1949) Peking 1930-1935 Fu Jen Middle School Catholic University of Peiping Kaifeng 1935-1948 Dispensary National Honan University Catechetical Instruction Catechumenate Primary School for Poor Children Refugee Camps Railroad Stations (Care of Wounded Soldiers) Taiwan. R.O.C. (1949- Tainan Taipei Lo tung Tanshui 1949-1950 Kuang Hwa Girls' Middle School Catechetical instruction 1949- National Taiwan University St. Benedict's Home for Children ( 1960-1963) Hostel ( 1968- Catechetical J nstruction Formation House ( 1960-1962) Private English and Doctrine Lessons Chaplai ns for the Catholic Association of Colleges and Universities 1958-1960 Formation House 1962- Novitiate and Formation House ( 1962- St. Benedict's Home for Children ( 1963-1975) Student Activity Center (1965-- Hostel ( 1970- Retreat Center ( 1975-- Private Retreats and Group Weekends ( 1971- Chaplains for the Catholic Association of Colleges and Universities BENEDICTINE MISSION TO CHINA

SUPERIORS IN CHTNNTAIWAN. R.O.C. MISSIONS Local Superiurs (Appointed by the Prioress) 1930-1949 S. Francetta Vetter 1949-1960 S. Wibora Muehlenbein Repimwl Superiors (Appointed by the Prioress) 1960-1961 S. Cleone Burnett 1961 - 1970 S. Glenore Riedner 1970-1971 S. Telan Hu 1971-1975 S. Bernard Marie Liang Regional Superior (Elected by the Dependent Priory) 1975- S. Bernard Marie Liang SISTERS WHO SERVED JN CHINA/TAIWAN , R.O.C. 1930-1980 Missionaries 10 Mainland China Years American Sisters 1930-1935 S. Donalda Terhaar 1930-1937 S. Rachel Loulan 1930-1961 S. Wibora Muehlenbein *1930-1966 S. Francella Yetter * 1930-1969 S. Regia Zens 1930- 1936-1941 *1936-1957 1939-1943 1939-1945 1940-1945 1947- S. Ronayne Gergen S. Annelda Wahl S. Ursuline Venne S. Flora Goebel S. Vestina Bursken S. Felicia Stager S. Mariette Pitz *Went to Japan in 1950. Missionaries to Taiwan. R.O.C. Yt•nrs American Sisters S. Annelda Wahl Mi.rsions Sen·t•d M<1i11/c11ul China Taiwan. R.O.C. Peiping Peiping. Kaifeng Peiping. Kaifeng Tainan . Taipei Peiping, Kaifeng Tainan Peiping. Kaifeng Tainan Peiping. Kaifeng Tainan. Taipei Kaifeng Japan Tokyo Tokyo. Muroran. Shimizusawa Kaifeng Tainan Tokyo Kaifeng Kaifeng Kaifeng Kaifeng Tainan. Taipei Chinese Sisters S. Barbara Loe S. Bernard Marie Liang 1958-1966 S. Bendu Han 1960-1961 1961- 1970 1961-1971 1961-1968 S. Cleone (Anne) Burnett S. Glenore Ricdner Years 195:>-1961 1953- 1958-1963 1960-1966 196 1- 1963 S. Telan Hu ( I) S. Benita Chiang S. Jacinta (Patricia) Roemer S. Loraine Bischof 1962- 1965 1962- 1962- 1964-1976 1964- S. Wehnar Yang S. Beppo Wang S. Losa Li S. Chanta Tu S. Luca Chin (King) 35 APPEN DI X

36 Missiu11arirs to Taiwan , R.O.C. ear~ American Sisters 1966-1978 S. Josue Bchnen ( 1) 1980- S. Josue Behnen (2) 1967-1973 S. Bemadeue (Anna) Keppers 1971-1976 S. Dorothea Lenz BENEDICTINE MISSION TO CHI NA Years 1966-1969 196&- 1966- 1969- 1970-1972 1974-1977 197SChinese Sisters S. Deway Lin S. Jose Tung S. Celaine Tan S. Francois Tsai S. Tclan Hu (2) S. Laura Chen S. Maria Hsu