If he showed up on Christmas Eve, the children would surely rush to him shouting, "Hi, Santa!"—which is exactly what residents of Kinmen (Quemoy), the ROC island bastion off mainland China, do call him.
Father Bernard Druetto, a Catholic priest, is patriarch, doctor, good shepherd, and good-hearted father to every one on the offshore islet. And like the world-famous children's idol he resembles, he delivers toys and presents on Christmas Eve to island children of all ages.
Father Druetto is available to any of Kinmen's young and old—spiritually, physically, psychologically—day and night.
"If you wish to hear the word of God, to be baptized, to go to confession, are sick, or just feeling blue, Father Druetto will comfort you and cheer you up in a hurry," a parishioner attested.
"Santa Claus comes once a year, on Christmas Eve, but our wise old uncle is with us all year long," added Colonel T.P. Lee, a ranking officer of the Kinmen defense.
Father Druetto's love of China, Kinmen in particular, is manifest: He has been in China by choice for 53 years, 32 of them on Kinmen.
"China was my first earthly love and has remained my only love through all these years," he says with some feeling, adding, "I will die on this island among the people I love. The only thing that could draw me away is the opportunity to go back to the mainland. Since I can't do that at present, I'll be staying right here, only five miles away.
"On a good day, I can see everything across the Strait so clearly, it makes me homesick. I wish Kinmen were a spring-board to catapult me right over."
A member of the Franciscan order, Father Druetto came to China as a young man of 23, thrilled then because his childhood dreams had come true. Changsha, Hunan, was the site of his first mission. He worked there indefatigably, preaching the Gospel and helping people. Nearly 4,000 Christian converts resulted, and he built a hospital for Christians and non-Christians alike. "Through personal experience, my love for China and the Chinese people was constantly enhanced," he says of that period.
The Communists overran the China mainland in 1949, and Father Druetto's mission was lost. Recalling it now, sad ness overwhelms the old man's face: "The Communists were bloodthirsty murderers, killing innocent people wherever they went. In Liuyang County, where my mission was, of one million people, one of every seven was slaughtered.
"The Chinese have a saying, 'Tyranny is worse than a tiger.' How true! The Reds were more ferocious than tigers. You may think I am making a mountain of a molehill, pulling your leg. But believe me, every word I said is true. The Communists cut out the hearts from the slaughtered people and made meals of them. Truly. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it in person.
"Other Chinese are not like that! What made the Reds behave that way? It must be the Godlessness of their Communism which made them so diabolical. It makes my heart ache every time I think of it. I am afraid the cruel scenes will remain in my mind till the day I die."
Under impossible conditions, Father Druetto refused to leave the mainland, continuing to labor for his suffering people. The Communists confiscated his mission and his hospital with its five hundred beds. And on March 7, 1951, Father Druetto was arrested and jailed, confined in a tiny cell for eight months. He was given very little to eat, and never allowed out of the cell. In the eight months, he lost over 100 pounds, weighing only 65 on his release. In his cell, a single bowl of water was brought to him each day for drinking and bathing.
When he was finally released, he was expelled immediately. "You can expel me, but you cannot expel my heart. I will return one day," he told his captors.
"You will be dead in five minutes if you set foot again on the soil of China," the chief Red official warned.
After staying in Hongkong for a short while, Father Druetto went on to Vietnam, where he worked among Chinese residents there. Then in 1953, he came to the Republic of China and made Kinmen his home. The small island was a sandy desert at the time, but through the efforts of its garrison and residents, it has since become fertile and productive.
Father Druetto single-handedly constructed two churches and a clinic on Kinmen. He helped countless sick, the poor in particular; his previous medical experience constantly came in handy.
Like St. Francis, he keeps many animals. Dogs and dozens of chickens and ducks run in the yard freely. A pony named Si is his constant companion, running to the old man whenever he is called. A kitten shares his meals.
Father Druetto eats but once a day, sometimes every other day. There is no bedroom; he sleeps on a chair, on the table, on the floor, doing all the chores himself, since he has no helper. A jack of all trades, he also does all the repairing.
One day, he fell off a ladder while fixing the church in July 1983 and couldn't get up. In terrible pain, he shouted, but there was no one to hear him. He called out, "My Heavenly Mother, help me!" And, he says, the pain ceased, and he fell asleep. In the morning, someone came by seeking medical assistance, found him, and took him to the hospital. The physicians on Kinmen didn't want to operate on the 75-year-old priest there and sent him to the ROC Air Force Hospital in Taipei where, as he recuperated, friends and even total strangers came to visit him and bring him gifts. "I am enjoying myself here," he chuckled to them.
The son of an Italian father and French mother, born in Marseilles, Father Druetto speaks both languages fluently. His mother passed away when he was only seven years old, and his twin brother died just 20 days later. Young Bernard entered the Franciscan order at the age of 15, later completing philosophy and theology studies at St. Anthony's University, Rome. In the eternal city, he also received a year's medical training, which was to help immensely in his later mission work.
Medical facilities on Kinmen are now ample, and up to date, but many residents still, when they are sick, prefer Father Druetto, whose affection for Kinmen's people is genuinely paternal.
During the massive shelling of Kinmen Island by the Chinese Communists in 1958, Father Druetto risked his life to hurry back to the island while others fled the shells; he went every where, crisscrossing the island to help the wounded and bury the dead. "How many people did you save?" asked one reporter. "Don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing," was father Druetto's laconic reply.
On August 30, a solemn High Mass was offered to celebrate the golden jubilee of Father Druetto's priesthood and the 52nd anniversary of his arrival in China. Listening to the congratulatory messages being read, including one from Pope John Paul II, Father Druetto stood at the altar, like a Moses of old, facing the Taiwan Strait and his beloved China mainland.