Martyr in China

Chapter 4. Hunger and Poverty

 |   | 

Fr. John Botton takes care of orphan girls: "every one of these naked and hungry girls has received clothing and hot milk"

He wrote reassuring letters to his relatives: “I live in a magnificent house. There are two priests and we each have two rooms: a study and a bedroom; there are also guest rooms and common rooms. Though the walls are made of mud, they are plastered with lime and are well whitened. The floors are made of brick and we have glass windows: everything is fine. Within the same enclosure we also have rooms for men and women who come from afar for the festivities, or for those who spend a period of time with us studying the catechism. They are large rooms that can hold more than 400 persons. We also have small courtyards, small vegetable gardens and trees that provide some shade. Two wells provide us with good fresh water; we have a grotto in which to keep our food fresh, and a church. What more could one ask for? All this is in the city; scattered around the country-side we have about another ten smaller houses. The city is on level-land, there are mountains about 5 miles away, and there is a river larger than our own river Brenta. There are no forests and any available ground is taken up by millet or wheat; there is barren ground where nothing at all can grow” (June 2, 1936).

But Juzhou was also the village of the brigands. Fr. Gino mentions it to his sister Maria, the nun, upon hearing of her destination to Jerusalem, “the country of Jesus”, while he, the daredevil, was in China “in the country of brigands.”  “They live up in the mountains and are always restless. A few days ago, a group of about 500 stayed put all night, just outside the town walls. We are quite safe inside the town itself; once we venture outside we are quite secure, provided we are careful; if there are many of them, one knows where they are and can keep an eye on them; if there are just a few of them, none of them has the courage to attack a European, no matter how much they would like to do so” (August 18, 1936).

We also have small courtyards, small vegetable gardens and trees that provide some shade. Two wells provide us with good fresh water; we have a grotto in which to keep our food fresh, and a church. What more could one ask for?
Fr. John Botton

Hunger was their most serious problem towards the end of 1936, and it became so serious the following year that the government had to send 40,000 Chinese dollars to help the population. The management of the funds was entrusted to two government representatives and the Catholic Church, represented by Fr. Botton.

It was impossible to meet the needs of all the hungry people. Upon his request, Fr. Botton was given a Chinese priest, Fr. Wang, to help him. It was heartrending for Fr. John to watch the suffering of so many people and entire families forced to move far away in what was often a vain attempt to find some food: “Many people, including Christians, leave with the whole family. They gather what few belongings they have in a barrow together with the children; the father pushes the children along and the mother trots behind them aided by a stick. They set out on a long journey without knowing where they are going. Here they would surely die of hunger; elsewhere, perhaps, they will find some form of sustenance. They are forced to leave their miserable and crumbling home that they love nonetheless, far away from their small piece of barren land where their loved ones are buried, far away from their relatives who, even if they are not very close, could provide some small help in times of need. They have to travel hundreds of miles on foot, begging a little millet or bread along the way; they sleep in the open, suffering the pangs of hunger…I can see them a month from now: thinner, haggard, tattered, hungry; exhausted women and crying children. I struggle to control my own emotions and try to offer them words of comfort and hope” (November 1936).

He was also afraid that the pangs of hunger would force some of his Christians to flee into the mountains and join the brigands.

In the meantime, little orphan girls began to appear around the church compound. In September, there were seven; in October another seven joined them: “This month (November), another 14 little hungry mouths have arrived on our door-step. Some of them groan, but none of them demand anything, or tried to move us to pity; and yet every one of these naked and hungry girls has received clothing and hot milk. Yesterday, the cook came to my room with yet another little girl he had just found. The little naked creature did not appear to be aware of the cold, nor did she seem to feel a stranger in the missionary’s house. She looked at everyone and everything as she owned it all, and she protested only when the cook put her down. If these children continue to arrive at this increasing rate, and I fear that this is inevitable, I don’t know how we will cope”.

It would be wrong to think that these children were abandoned out of cruelty. Hunger was the cause of this, and the account of Fr. Mario Frassineti can help us understand just how harrowing an experience it could be for a mother to leave her child behind: “Around midday, I happened to be near the front door when a woman came in with a little girl of about two years old in her arms. She looked at me without speaking. She pulled the child away from her breast and set her down on the ground, as if just for a moment. She then buttoned her jacket up, turned around quickly and, without looking at me, disappeared. After a moment, I looked out into the street, but she had vanished without trace, leaving me alone with a screaming little girl. It had all happened very quickly. The child had been left with us and her mother would never come back. She was now part of our family, a child of the Church. My thoughts go to the woman who has left her here. As she left, her child’s cries were ringing in her ears and that will always be the last memory of her daughter…Her empty and tearless eyes caused me great sorrow. Those who are desperately unhappy are unable to cry. Hunger, real hunger, brutalizes the heart. There is no more milk in the mother’s breast, and no more tears in the heart”. 

» more