Thus, the only earthly reward for Maryknoll Bishop James E. Walsh's half a lifetime of service in China was a Communist-rigged public trial on trumped-up charges of espionage and conspiracy, and a prison cell for the remainder of his life.
The Most Rev. James Edward Walsh, D. D., M. M., the last American Catholic missioner remaining on the Communist-controlled Chinese mainland, was born in Cumberland, Maryland, on April 30, 1891. He attended St. Patrick's School in Cumberland and graduated from Mount St. Mary's College in 1910 with an A. B. Degree.
On September 15, 1912, he entered the newly founded Maryknoll Seminary to prepare for the missionary priesthood. One of its six original students, he was ordained at Maryknoll on December 7, 1915. On September 8, 1918 he was assigned as a member of the first Maryknoll Mission band to leave the United States for China. This group of four Maryknollers was led by Father Thomas F. Price, one of the Maryknoll co-founders. Father Price died a year later in Hong Kong and Bishop Walsh became the superior in China.
In 1924, the Maryknoll Mission in Kongmoon, Kwangtung province, became a prefecture and Father Walsh was named monsignor and put in charge of it. It was raised to the status of a vicariate in 1927 and Monsignor Walsh was named to be its first bishop. He was consecrated on Sancian Island, death place of St. Francis Xavier which had been entrusted to Maryknoll. During the succeeding years Bishop Walsh gave energetic direction to his mission and it grew rapidly.
He was elected superior-general of the Maryknoll fathers at the general chapter held in Hong Kong in 1936. Shortly after completing his ten-year term, Bishop Walsh returned to China. In 1948 he became the executive secretary of the Catholic Central Bureau of religious organization to coordinate all missionary, cultural, welfare and educational activities of the Catholic Church in the country.
The Communists ordered the Bureau to suspend activities on June 8, 1951. They accused Bishop Walsh of turning the organization into a "prominent, anti-Communist stronghold against the people." He and other members were also ordered to submit all publications to an official investigation, and to hold themselves in readiness for a "complete investigation." From that time on, he was under constant surveillance and subjected to continuous harassment and planned annoyances by the Communists.
All of the priests associated with Bishop Walsh were arrested and are either exiled or in prison. Despite numerous requests he was not allowed to see those who were in jail. The Catholic Center where he lived was raided and Bishop Walsh was confined to one room. Then the Communists removed him from the Catholic Center entirely and forced him to take up residence with some Chinese priests at Christ the King Parish on Changlo Road (formerly Rue Bourgeat).
Bishop Walsh made up his mind to remain in China as long as possible. He was not free to carryon missionary work, but he felt that his presence there would lend moral support to the Christians who were undergoing so many trials and that it also supported the Chinese clergy in their resistance against the Red persecution of religion.
On one occasion when the Communist police came to arrest some of the Chinese priests. Bishop Walsh packed his bag and joined the group entering the police van. When the officers stopped him from entering and told him that he was not being arrested at that time, the usually placid bishop threw his hat upon the ground and stamped on it—such was his strong desire to share the lot of the persecuted hierarchy and clergy of China.
For the next several years, while Bishop Walsh was confined to the rectory of Christ the King Church in Shanghai, the Communists allowed him to send and receive messages from the outside world as well as receive occasional telephone calls from Hong Kong. They were probably trying to make up their mind on what to do with this obstinate old man—the last American missioner left on the mainland. During this period, a foreign correspondent who was allowed to interview him asked why he remained in China when he could no longer do any active mission work. The newsman described the incident as follows:
"'Do you want to know why I still remain in China?' said Msgr. Walsh. He remained silent for a while. He was so calm and gentle, and his manner of talking was, as before, that of a kind scholar and theologian. 'Obedience is the first requisite of a missionary,' said he. 'Since I have been sent here to spread the Gospel. I must stick to my post. Besides. I love China and still more the Chinese; I cannot bear to leave China and the Chinese behind. I will stay here as the Communist Government permits.'"
On the occasion of his 25th anniversary. May 22, 1952, the Bishop wrote to a friend:
"One of the simplest, most obvious, and most effective ways to improve the missioner's prospects is to supply him and his cause with a lot of free advertisement. Surround him with trouble, turmoil, opposition, and persecution; and the man who was lost in the crowd becomes the cynosure of all eyes overnight. Lock him up and you solve one of his greatest problems, by giving him the golden chance to show in whose Divine Name he has come, and to preach with an eloquence he never knew before....
"The missioner is not a man to look for trouble. But he has seen its magic many a time, knows it is often one of the very best mediums through which to reach and help his people. He thinks that nothing is too much to pay for that."
In 1956 when the question of repatriation arose. Bishop Walsh wrote: "I don't feel inclined to get off the earth just because some people dislike my religion. Internment and death are simply the normal risks that are inherent in our state of life, a small price to pay for carrying out our duty—in our particular case a privilege because it would associate us a little more intimately with the cross of Christ."
During the seven years that followed the closing and investigation of the Catholic Central Bureau in 1951, no official action was taken against Bishop Walsh. Under a normal system of government, this might have been regarded as a tacit admission that the authorities had no fault to find with his work. But on October 18, 1958 a telephone call placed from Hongkong to the Bishop was answered by a servant who said that he had not seen the Bishop for a week, although he had worked each day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the rectory of Christ the King Church.
Inquiries made through the British Consulate in Shanghai concerning the Bishop's whereabouts elicited no further information on the matter. Then the Chinese Communists announced on December 15, 1959 that the Maryknoll Bishop had been arrested for violation of Chinese laws which they did not specify.
Reports at that time indicated that Bishop Walsh was very weak and it was feared his health might break under the strain of reported daily questioning about his contacts with "foreign agents." It was later learned that on February 2, 1959 Bishop Walsh was transferred to a prison hospital to receive medical treatment for an undisclosed illness.
For the next two years, there was no further news concerning Bishop Walsh despite repeated requests by the United States State Department to the Chinese Communist regime for an official statement concerning this American citizen being held in prison on the Chinese mainland. Peiping replied only that he was "under investigation." The United States was told that the investigation of Bishop Walsh was an "internal affair" and that it should not poke its nose into it.
Observers speculated that the Bishop was being prepared for the usual mock trial, leading possibly to a jail sentence. It took the Chinese Communist regime 18 months to prepare for his "conviction," announced by Radio Peiping on March 18.
The People's Daily of Peiping on March 19 reported the trial under a four column headline on page 1, but without mentioning whether Bishop Walsh was assigned a defense counsel, whether he was informed of the specific charges directed against him and given a chance for reply, or how long did the trial last. It did not say under what specific provision of law was he sentenced to 20 years in prison. The answers to all these questions were plain: Bishop Walsh apparently was not given a defense counsel, he probably did not understand the charges levelled falsely against him, the trial began and ended on March 18 because there was no calling of witnesses, no chance for the defendant to answer the charges. And evidently, since the Chinese Communist regime still does not have a criminal code, the "judge" can sentence any person to any punishment that pleases him. While the People's Daily claimed that Bishop Walsh was sentenced "according to law." it conveniently did not explain according to what law, because there was none.
Other foreign churchmen charged with taking part in the "plot" include Monte Carlo-born Archbishop Antonio Riberi, now Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, who was ousted by the Communists as Internuncio to China in 1951; Father Fernand Lacretelle. S.J., a French missionary who before his expulsion from the Chinese mainland was Jesuit superior in Shanghai; and Father George Germaine. S.J., former rector of Aurora University in Shanghai.
United States government and church leaders joined in protesting the 20-year prison sentence imposed on Bishop Walsh by the Chinese Communists. Secretary of State Christian A. Herter expressed "revulsion" at the sentencing of Bishop Walsh and instructed U. S. Ambassador to Poland Jacob D. Beam to lodge "the strongest possible protest" with the Chinese Communist "ambassador" there. Wang Pin-nan.
"I am certain," Secretary Herter said in his statement, "that the rest of the world will join me in condemning this action taken against an innocent citizen of the United States and distinguished member of the Catholic clergy.
"His only mission was religious and his personal devotion to the spiritual welfare of his fellow Catholics was so deep as to compel him to remain on the Chinese mainland despite the persecution of his Church by a godless regime."
Francis Cardinal Spellman. Archbishop of New York. described as absurd the charges of "espionage" lodged against the 68-year-old missionary bishop by the Communists:
"No one has been more devoted to the Chinese people. to whom he dedicated the fullness of his priestly life. It is tragic irony that he should now be accused of working against their interests."
Cardinal Spellman also replied to charges levelled against himself by the Chinese Communists. He commented: "I brought Bishop Walsh with me from the United States to China in 1948. I have never seen nor heard from him since we parted in Tsingtao."
From April to June, 1948. Cardinal Spellman made a 50-day visit to Australia, the Philippines, China and Japan. Bishop Walsh accompanied him to China from the United States. Also in the party were Archbishop Gerald T. Bergan of Omaha and Auxiliary Bishop Fulton Sheen of New York, then a monsignor.
In Boston, Richard Cardinal Cushing said that the Communist Chinese regime may have sounded its own "death knell" by sentencing Bishop Walsh. "We can see in Bishop Walsh the modern martyr whose courage is born of a Christ-like spirit of charity," he said.
In Washington, the U.S. Senate heard Bishop Walsh's sentence described as "an atrocity of great magnitude" by Senator J. Glenn Beall of Maryland. The charges against Bishop Walsh are "trumped up charges," Senator Beall said, adding: "Bishop Walsh was in China as a missionary, concerned with the souls of the Chinese, not with politics."
"Claims that Bishop Walsh was a tool of any government are fantastic. There is positive evidence that Bishop Walsh never had any connection with the American Government. When our consulates were there, he never once contacted them. He stayed away from national and international politics. His interest was solely in the religious life of the Chinese people," he said.
Recalling that "the persecution of Catholic priests and nuns in Red China has been going on for years," Senator Beall said the Communists' treatment of Bishop Walsh is "a horrible illustration of the methods of the Reds." "They hate the Church. They hate Christianity. And so they strike out at a man who to them personifies the Church," he said.
Senator Mansfield of Montana said the sentencing of Bishop Walsh is "a travesty on justice" and "one more reason" why Red China should not be recognized by the United States or admitted to the United Nations. "I have never known a more kindly or understanding man," he commented. "His desire has always been to serve his Chinese flock and he refused to leave China for that reason. This was evidently his 'crime' and this is why he is being punished."
The sentencing of Bishops Kung and Walsh was no doubt a desperate attempt by the Chinese Communists to discredit staunch defenders of the Vatican in the eyes of Chinese Catholics. The Communists apparently believed that their action would help their drive to set up a schismatic Catholic church on the mainland subservient to communism.
After revealing the jail sentences, the New China News Agency reported that the Peiping regime was organizing meetings of Catholics in Shanghai and in other areas of Anhwei, Kiangsu and Chekiang provinces "to explain" the trials and sentences imposed on Bishops Kung and Walsh. These are regions where the schismatic "patriotic church" has I made little progress. In another dispatch, from Nanking, the Red news agency quoted Li Wei-kwang, vice chairman of the "Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics," as stating that the trials revealed that "U.S. imperialism is our most vicious enemy and the Vatican is its tool of aggression."
A recently arrived refugee from Shanghai disclosed that Bishop Walsh has had to have a doctor visit him almost daily in his place of confinement. The refugee said the bishop is known to be in poor health, to be very thin and to have a sallow complexion. Yet, despite illness and imprisonment, Bishop Walsh remains unyielding in his belief of right and wrong and in his refusal to admit the trumped up charges of espionage and conspiracy on which the Communists "convicted" him.