{"id":62411,"date":"2025-11-06T18:54:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T17:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62411"},"modified":"2025-11-06T18:54:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T17:54:56","slug":"the-worlds-most-persecuted-underground-bishop-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/11\/06\/the-worlds-most-persecuted-underground-bishop-has-died\/","title":{"rendered":"The World\u2019s Most Persecuted Underground Bishop Has Died"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-130600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/vescovo_clandestino.webp\" alt=\"Underground Bishop\" width=\"611\" height=\"321\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>Farewell to underground <strong>Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo<\/strong>, a fearless pastor who defied China\u2019s regime, spending <strong>more time in prison<\/strong> than free.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He passed away on October 29, 2025, at the age of 91, <mark><strong>Msgr. Julius Jia Zhiguo<\/strong><\/mark>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He was an emblematic figure of the <strong>Chinese \u201cunderground\u201d Church<\/strong>, known for his unwavering <strong>loyalty<\/strong> to the Pontiff and for a long life lived under the shadow of state repression.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A life <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucanews.com\/news\/chinese-underground-bishop-dies-at-91-after-decades-of-oppression\/110788\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">marked<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by persecution and imprisonment. The Chinese dictatorship was <strong>obsessed<\/strong> with the figure of Msgr. Jia Zhiguo.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">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.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>A life in prison for loyalty to the Pope<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His refusal to submit to the state patriotic Catholic association drew <strong>continuous<\/strong> and relentless persecution upon him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His first imprisonment dates back to <strong>1963<\/strong>, when he was taken to prison for not renouncing his loyalty to the Pope, where he remained for about 15 years, until <strong>1978<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">After only 4 years of freedom, in <strong>1982<\/strong> he was again arrested by Chinese authorities and sentenced to another 10 years on the charge of \u201ccollusion with foreign forces,\u201d being released early in <strong>1987<\/strong> but kept under house arrest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On April 4, <strong>1989<\/strong> he suffered a new arrest while in Beijing to meet a Salesian priest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Once released, from <strong>2004<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, he was arrested yet again in <strong>2005<\/strong>, on the eve of then-President George W. Bush\u2019s visit to China, on August 24, <strong>2008<\/strong>, the day after the closing of the Beijing Olympics, and on March 30, <strong>2009<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">From <strong>2010<\/strong> he <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asianews.it\/news-en\/Hebei-mourns-Bishop-Jia-Zhiguo,-a-courageous-pastor-who-survived-the-chains-64171.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lived<\/a><\/em><\/strong> confined to the episcopal residence, without <strong>ever compromising<\/strong> with the authorities. He received visitors and administered the sacraments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He never had personal wealth, always devoted himself to serving the least fortunate and, with the help of nuns, opened <strong>a residence<\/strong> for abandoned children and young people with disabilities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even in that case, however, as a final act of persecution, the orphanage was demolished in <strong>2020<\/strong> by Chinese authorities with the formal justification of \u201clack of government approval.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And to make sure he lacked nothing, on that occasion Msgr. Jia Zhiguo <b>was arrested once again<\/b>, the last time, for several months.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>An open wound for our complacent faith<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to reports, he endured various <strong>tortures<\/strong> during the years of imprisonment, including the flooding of his cell which caused him constant bone pain and permanent damage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the few years he lived in freedom, he <strong>rebuilt the Catholic community<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A model pastor, they <strong>tried to break him<\/strong> but he never bowed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">They imprisoned him, humiliated him, took everything he had, but they never managed to tear away his <strong>inner freedom<\/strong> or separate him from the Church of Rome.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">May the life of <strong>Msgr. Julius Jia Zhiguo<\/strong> become an open wound when we nod off in our <strong>comfortable existences<\/strong>, in our faith, complacent and bored, in our belief that religious freedom is an entitlement and that <strong>loyalty to the Church<\/strong> is a detail to be reserved for certain circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Farewell to underground Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, a fearless pastor who defied China\u2019s regime, spending more time in prison than free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":130,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2093,2094,2092,2098,2097,2096],"class_list":["post-62411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-china-catholics","tag-china-underground-bishops","tag-church-china","tag-msgr-julius-jia-zhiguo","tag-persecuted-bishop","tag-religious-persecution"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - 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