Farewell to underground Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, a fearless pastor who defied China’s regime, spending more time in prison than free.

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He passed away on October 29, 2025, at the age of 91, Msgr. Julius Jia Zhiguo.

He was an emblematic figure of the Chinese “underground” Church, known for his unwavering loyalty to the Pontiff and for a long life lived under the shadow of state repression.

A life marked by persecution and imprisonment. The Chinese dictatorship was obsessed with the figure of Msgr. Jia Zhiguo.

Born in Hebei province, he was ordained a priest in 1980 and clandestinely consecrated bishop of Zhengding the following year by Msgr. Joseph Fan Xueyang.

 

A life in prison for loyalty to the Pope

His refusal to submit to the state patriotic Catholic association drew continuous and relentless persecution upon him.

His first imprisonment dates back to 1963, when he was taken to prison for not renouncing his loyalty to the Pope, where he remained for about 15 years, until 1978.

After only 4 years of freedom, in 1982 he was again arrested by Chinese authorities and sentenced to another 10 years on the charge of “collusion with foreign forces,” being released early in 1987 but kept under house arrest.

On April 4, 1989 he suffered a new arrest while in Beijing to meet a Salesian priest.

Once released, from 2004 he again became the subject of numerous enforced disappearances and arrests. The first official report of his disappearance occurred that year in Hebei province. He was released shortly afterward thanks to the complaint and the efforts of Vatican international diplomacy.

However, he was arrested yet again in 2005, on the eve of then-President George W. Bush’s visit to China, on August 24, 2008, the day after the closing of the Beijing Olympics, and on March 30, 2009.

From 2010 he lived confined to the episcopal residence, without ever compromising with the authorities. He received visitors and administered the sacraments.

He never had personal wealth, always devoted himself to serving the least fortunate and, with the help of nuns, opened a residence for abandoned children and young people with disabilities.

Even in that case, however, as a final act of persecution, the orphanage was demolished in 2020 by Chinese authorities with the formal justification of “lack of government approval.”

And to make sure he lacked nothing, on that occasion Msgr. Jia Zhiguo was arrested once again, the last time, for several months.

 

An open wound for our complacent faith

According to reports, he endured various tortures during the years of imprisonment, including the flooding of his cell which caused him constant bone pain and permanent damage.

In the few years he lived in freedom, he rebuilt the Catholic community of Hebei province several times and presided over the episcopal ordinations of numerous priests and underground bishops, significantly helping to reduce the clergy shortage in various parts of China.

A model pastor, they tried to break him but he never bowed.

They imprisoned him, humiliated him, took everything he had, but they never managed to tear away his inner freedom or separate him from the Church of Rome.

May the life of Msgr. Julius Jia Zhiguo become an open wound when we nod off in our comfortable existences, in our faith, complacent and bored, in our belief that religious freedom is an entitlement and that loyalty to the Church is a detail to be reserved for certain circumstances.