A Vision At Mass
| Author | Published | Type | File |
|---|---|---|---|
| G. Church M.S.C. | 1957 | Article | View |
The majority of this article is an extract from Chapter 5 of 75 Glorious Years. It's possible that G. Church contributed this story to that book. This was printed in the Annals, a magazine distributed by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (i.e. 'Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur').
By G. Church M.S.C.
Father G. Church, M.S.C., writes the remarkable story of the Chinese Catholic Community in Rabaul, New Britain. Father Church is teaching at the Regional Seminary at Ulapia, near Rabaul, where 50 boys from New Guinea, Papua and other islands of Oceania are engaged in preparatory studies for the Priesthood.
In New Britain, late in 1945, a Chinese, Gabriel Achun Chue, who was newly released from the Japanese prison camp, looked sadly at the desolation and ruin that was all that was left of the one-time garden township of Rabaul. Even the dead had not been left in peace, for the country had been bombed from the air and later bulldozed by the Japanese. Amongst all the devastation only one thing stood erect —a tombstone on which was written the name "Paul Ah Lok." Somehow it seemed prophetic that this one thing to stand firm in the bombed town should be the headstone of one who helped to begin an indestructible work in a changing world—the conversion of the Chinese community in New Britain.
WHILE the German New Guinea Company was in control in New Britain, some Chinese were introduced to work in plantations (most of whom soon became independent traders)-others came from China as free settlers. The population of the Kokopo district (there was no big settlement in Rabaul) in 1903 was 277 Europeans, and 91 Chinese, none of whom were Catholics, for indeed they had no contact with the Catholic Religion.
THE STORY BEGINS WITH AH LOK
In 1899 there was a Chinese by the name of Ah Lok, who was cooking for the German Acting- Administrator, Dr. Roce. By 1901 he had become an independent trader on a small island named Utuan in the Duke of York group. He then brought out his two younger brothers from China.
Akun, the younger of the two, met on board a copra schooner (which happened to be going to Vunapope) two boys of mixed blood, who were scholars at the Vunapope school. Hearing that there were many boys there, he resolved that he would return to the island, Utuan, and ask his big brother's permission to attend Vunapope school. Ah Lok agreed, and so he went.
AKUN AT VUNAPOPE
WHEN he arrived, Sister M. Borgia, a Queensland nun, asked Ah Lok if he would permit Ah Kun to attend all the classes, including religious instruction. Then if Akun wished it, and if he were considered worthy, would Ah Lok give permission to this young brother of his to become a Catholic?
Ah Lok agreed to this. Aloysius was baptized on Christmas Day, 1902. So he was the first Chinese Catholic. He is now in Hong Kong.
Gabriel Chow Ying at that time had been working on Gunantambu Plantation, and used to visit Akun at school at Vunapope on Sunday to learn English. Akun gave him Religious Instructions. In June, 1907, he was baptized (the second Catholic). The next to be baptized were Aloysius, who was Ah Lok's son, and Ng Hing, father of Paul Ah Ming.
Today when Gabriel Chow Ying recalls his baptism he still tells how Father Dicks, who instructed him, insisted that he attend Mass every Sunday for fourteen months. This sounds fair enough— until you remember that he had to come all the way there and back in an open boat from New Ireland to Vunapope, a distance of about 200 miles!
A VISION AT MASS
MEANWHILE, Ah Lok was still a pagan, though he was very friendly with the Catholic Mission. He had a plantation in New Ireland, and used to come and visit his little brother while he was still at school in Vunapope.
One Sunday morning, while he was staying in Kokopo, he saw Gabriel Chow Ying and Seeto Pang, and asked them where they were going. They said they were going to Mass in Vunapope. Ah Lok said he wanted to go too. They said he could come, provided he did not talk or distract other people while at the ceremony. They feared (correctly, as Ah Lok admitted later) that he was going to Mass just for a joke. He was a lively fellow. He promised and he went. You must remember that Ah Lok had no knowledge of the Catholic Religion and he watched every movement of the priest with great attention. Communion time approached, and the priest opened the tabernacle.
TO HIS UTTER SURPRISE, AH LOK SAW ON THE ALTAR A LITTLE BOY IN SHINING CLOTHES AND BRIGHT EYES. THE BOY LOOKED AT AH LOK AND SMILED WARMLY AT HIM. AH LOK THEN NOTICED THAT THE BOY WAS DRESSED IN GREEN CLOTHES. (HE UNDERSTOOD GREEN TO BE THE COLOUR OF WELCOME). NATURALLY, HE WAS ANXIOUS TO ASK HIS FRIEND BESIDE HIM TO EXPLAIN WHY THE CATHOLIC PRIEST KEPT THE LITTLE BOY IN THE LITTLE WOODEN HOUSE ON THE ALTAR. HE WANTED ALSO TO KNOW WHO HE WAS.
But, remembering his promise not to talk, he resolved to ask them when Mass was over. When he told them about it after Mass, they would not take him seriously. On the way back to Kokopo, he kept telling them what he had seen and asked them to explain, but they insisted that he was not and could not be serious. So Ah Lok went back to Vunapope, and asked his young brother Akun to explain everything to him. Akun told his big brother that you see nobody on the altar, and explained to him as best he could the Doctrine of the Blessed Eucharist. Ah Lok was still dissatisfied.
All night he coald not sleep because of the problem. He resolved to find out himself. So next morning they found him waiting for the Vunapope church to be opened. He attended every Mass (several are offered each day in Vunapope), and watched eagerly every time the tabernacle was opened. He was disappointed because he did not see the little boy again.
LORD, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME TO DO?
He was tortured with doubts. Had he been dreaming? He was sure he had not. He went to the Superior and asked for a book. The only book they could give him was a prayer book without any instructions in it. This he took back with him to New Ireland, and studied very seriously.
Eventually he felt he must become a Catholic. He came across from New Ireland in an open boat to Vunapope, and sought out Father Dicks, who was a serious man. He examined his knowledge and refused to baptize him because of his lack of instruction. He went back and forth between New Ireland and Vunapope, and three times he was examined and three times he failed.
One day in Kokopo, the German Administrator, Doctor Hahl, noticed that he was remaining in Kokopo, and asked when he was returning to his plantation. Ah Lok said: "I will not go back until I have been baptized."
Father Dicks heard of this, was impressed and gave him another examination, which he passed. He was baptized 12th April, 1907. Once a Catholic he became a very fervent apostle. He used to gather the Chinese of New Ireland to instruct them, and urged them to send their children to Vunapope, where many of them were baptized.
He remained a model of devout Catholic living and of the lay apostolate until his death on 25th January, 1939— the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the Saint whose name he took at baptism and whose apostolic zeal he imitated so well.
The first Chinese Catholic, School was in New Ireland. It was open privately and run by Ah Lok. He taught the Chinese students religion there - he had obtained catechisms and Catholic literature from China - and gathered around numbers of his countrymen every evening, and soon a class was ready for baptism.
On one occasion Ah Lok heard that two Catholic colleges in China were to be closed down because of lack of funds. He and his brothers sent the needed money. He assisted the education of poor children in Rabaul and China.
Two of the earliest of Ah Lok's converts were Lam Young and Ng Chung. They were converted by Ah Lok, and are still attending daily Mass and Communion in Rabaul.
ONE of the most outstanding converts of Ah Lok was his own brother Achai. Though a very upright, honest man, Achai simply could not see Ah Lok's view on religion. Many and heated were the arguments they had about the matter.
During this time the ever-zealous and saintly Bishop Couppe used to travel around the islands of his vicariate saying Mass and dispensing the Sacraments to his scattered flock. Quite unexpectedly, he arrived at the plantation of the two brothers. He remained there overnight to-say Mass for the one Catholic there. This made a great impression on Achai, and after Mass, which he did not attend, he felt that he simply must be baptized. The Bishop, acting undoubtedly under the inspiration of God, agreed.
TWO BABIES -- GABRIEL AND JOHN
It was the very next day that Gabriel Chow Ying, seeing the boat at Ah Lok's plantation, asked if Father Dicks were there and would he baptize his two children. This he did, naming one baby (then two years old) Gabriel and the other John. Achai acted as Godfather to both.
ACHAI'S CHILDREN
Throughout the years he has been an example of holy living to one and all. God certainly had designs on John Achal, who raised a large family of fourteen children. His eldest daughter was the first Chinese of Rabaul to enter religion. She was followed by five other members of the family. Two have been priests in China for many years - one a Jesuit and the other a secular priest. Another son is studying to be a Missionary of the Sacred Heart in Australia. The second daughter is a Daughter of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, now teaching in Rabaul, while still another was recently professed in the same Congregation.
What of Achai? He is still alive in 1958 and is still a daily communicant as he has been for all of the last almost forty years. Akun worked for a wealthy merchant, Ah Sam, until 1914, when he set up his own store in Rabaul.
The pagan Chinese community had their own school in an old pagan temple. The Catholic Chinese set up their own church and their own school, and brought out a teacher from China.
ENTER FATHER MADIGAN
In 1924 an Australian priest arrived. It was Father Madigan. Since the English language was now becoming very necessary for trading and the number of children had so increased, it was decided to ask the Bishop for Sisters to teach the children. The children of the school had made such a good impression by attending Mass frequently and by their good conduct that many pagan children had asked permission to go to the Catholic school.
... AND THE O.L.S.H. SISTERS
THE O.L.S.H. Sisters took over by two Chinese, Anton T'so and Andreas Wong. The school was called Yang-Ching School.
When a re-entry permit could not be obtained for Chinese teachers, a Chinese priest, Father Philp Lau, came. In 1927 a large church was built on the present site. In 1931 a Chinese school was built in Kavieng.
In 1941 a magnificent school and hall were erected in Rabaul for the education of the large Catholic community of four hundred school children. Unfortunately, these buildings were demolished during the second World War.
THE MARIST BROTHERS
IN 1950 the Marist Brothers in China sent a Community of Chinese brothers to teach in the Sacred Heart School at Rabaul, and some few years later the Marist Brothers in Australia accepted responsibility for the school.
THE FAITH TODAY
THERE are about one thousand Catholics now, a flourishing Catholic life, with Men's Holy Name Society, Women's Sacred Heart Sodality, Legion of Mary Groups and Catholic Youth Organisation.
There is a large senior school, a kindergarten and pre-school centre. The greatest blessing has come to these Chinese people, God's call to the religious life.
VOCATIONS
1 Jesuit priest (in China), Father Gabriel Chan Tin Cheong. 1 secular priest (in China), Father Luke Chan Tin Bo. 1 Sister-Helper of the Holy Souls (in China), Mother Elizabeth Chan Yit Kui. 7 Sisters of O.L.S.H., Sister M. Rosita Chan Foong Chin, Sister M. Patrick Chue Beck Wan, Sister M. Lucienne Seeto Kit Ching, Sister Mary Callista Seeto Ho Ching, Sister M. Paulita Choi Ching Kit, Sister M. Chan Foong Hin and Sister M. Agnella Chue Sin Wan. 1 Sister of Charity Sister Mary Jacinta Fong Kwai Kui. 1 Scholastic M.S.C., Brother Albert Chan Tin Choo. 1 Apostolic school boy, Bernard Seeto Wing Cheong.
DEO GRATIAS
SO we have much for which to thank those early apostles who founded the Church in Rabaul. It is the glory of that church that it was founded by the energy and faith of those early Chinese Catholics. Gabriel Chow Ying, as you have read above, was a moving spirit in setting up the early schools and churches.
Today he is still a builder—he was Mr. Bell's first helper in planning the foundations of the new church now being built. However, his eyes are failing, and when Mr. Bell found that he was sighting the foundations in circles Gabriel was given an honourable discharge-discharged but not discouraged, because he is not going to die until the church is complete, he stated.
He was one of the first to enter the church by his conversion long ago, and he has a hope that he will be the first to enter the new church when it is complete--and we all hope so, too.
(THE END)