Bishop Dies After 40 Years In Communist Prison.

BY NINA SHEA , CP OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

February 6, 2015|5:43 am

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  Nina Shea is director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians

The courage and sacrifice of today's Christian martyrs should not go unnoticed and unappreciated. One such heroic figure, the 94-year-old Roman Catholic bishop Cosma Shi Enxiang, has recently died in Chinese custody, according to an official government statement, reported on February 2 by an independent Catholic news service focusing on Asia. His generation felt the brunt of Chinese Communist cruelty, but his death as a religious prisoner reminds us that religious repression in China is far from over.

Altogether, since 1954, Bishop Shi was held captive for over 40 years by the Communist government for his religion, making him one of the longest serving political prisoners of our age. (I intend in no way to minimize the suffering of Nelson Mandela and Alexander Solzhenitsyn by pointing out that Mandela was imprisoned by South Africa's apartheid government for 27 years, and that Solzhenitsyn was forced to spend eleven years in the Soviet gulag.)

He was incarcerated for refusing to submit to government religious oversight — oversight that precludes, for example, preaching against abortion and female infanticide. His final detention, at a secret location, lasted 14 years and nothing is known about it. His first prison term spanned 23 years, from 1957 to 1980, and was mostly spent doing hard labor, first at a labor camp in Heilongjiang province, then in coal mines in Shanxi province. He was rearrested in 1989 and released in 1993. Though his health was ruined, he continued to serve as bishop in the years in between.

After being arrested at his niece's home in Beijing for the last time, on Good Friday, April 13, 2001, Bishop Shi was never seen again by those who knew him. He was reportedly held without charge or due process. The January 30 notice of his death was the first and only word about the prelate in 14 years. Repeated appeals from around the world to the government for information about him always went unanswered.