A BROTHER TO HIS BROTHERS
BROTHER JOHN YU (1925-2003)
A glory for the Salesian Congregation. A life lived out to the full, following the example of the great Salesian missionaries in China. Always faithful, even during long years in prison and long years of hard labour.
He did not seem to have anything else to talk about. Every time one met Brother John Yu the little hunchback who was always smiling, inevitably the talk turned to the Congregation, the movements of superiors, the work of the community, the boys in the school and the renewed hope of more vocations. The latter, in particular, was the preferred topic.
John Yu came from Peking and Father Charles Braga, the Don Bosco of China, had recruited him when he was a little boy in Shanghai during the tragic years of the Second World War. Brother John would say that he had been won over by the example of men who were not Chinese and had come from far away. They had given their all for the Chinese, even their lives. They were men like Father Versiglia, Father Caravario, Father Lareno, Father Matkovics, Father Munda. Generations of Chinese had been formed, following their example.
When this kind of seed is scattered on the soil of the soul the harvest is bound to be good, and the fruit has the same strength, suffers the same anguish, climbs to the same heights, even to the point of accepting the same fate, as did Peter Yeh, Joseph Fu, Simon Leung and, of course, John Yu.
When he became a Salesian in 1946, John was immediately chosen to be a co-founder of the Salesian work in Peking, along with Father Mario Acquistapace and Father Marcello Giustich. Their first residence was an old, small, ramshackle pagoda. Then they acquired a larger property with some huts on it. It was in this House, which had been dreamt about by Don Bosco, that by day John was the factotum providing all that was necessary, working in the kitchen and the vegetable garden, looking after the maintenance of the house, doing the jobs of labourer, painter, electrician, plumber and everyone else. By night he assisted in the dormitory of his poor boys. He prayed for them as he said his Rosary walking along among the long rows of beds. He was a member of a community that was described by the then Apostolic Nuncio at Peking as the “poorest that he had even seen in the world”.
But within two or three years it became a very flourishing centre for spreading devotion to Mary Help of Christians, the official patroness of China, throughout the Diocese of Peking. Every twenty-fourth of the month thousands of people crowded into the Salesian House. The work went ahead for a good eight years even if already in 1948 the red sun of Mao had risen over Peking. And then it was only a question of time.
How could a centre which worked so much for poor and abandoned youth, but at the same time spread the Christian faith and unshakeable fidelity to the Pope, be allow to continue undisturbed? And besides that, did not the Party itself look after abandoned boys? On 26 January 1954 the last two missionary confreres, Father Giustich and Father Fels, were expelled. Father Paul Fong the young rector of the house was arrested on 3 March; he would be freed only in 1991.
A short time later it was the turn of Brother John Yu. He was imprisoned and forced to do hard labour until 1981, but during that time he felt the Lord nearer to him than previously. In 1981 the reforms of Deng Xaio Ping allowed him to return to his family in Shanghai, where he accepted the generous and courageous hospitality of one of his nephews.
John was now 56 years old. Did he think of retiring? Absolutely not! He dedicated himself to his confreres who were still doing hard labour in prison, and also to recruiting vocations, both male and female. He felt that he had been sent by Don Bosco to take care of his sons and daughters. He spent days in trains, travelling thousands of kilometres. He carried heavy parcels of life’s necessities, especially oil, so that they could cook their poor meals in concentration camps. It was no joke; he clocked up three thousand kilometres bringing comfort to his confrere Mark Wong who was still imprisoned; and in winter the temperature could go down to 40 degrees C. below zero.
He addressed his friendly and encouraging words to young people, words full of kindness and Salesian wisdom. He spoke with them and listened to them speaking about their problems, their sufferings, their courage, their zeal, their hopes. He became a point of reference for them, as solid as a rock, just like his name, Shek-Tchu, which means column of stone. He was a tower of strength for all of those whom he had the good fortune to meet.
An attack of paralysis in 1998 did not stop him; it just meant a change of residence. In 1999 he became a member of the community of the Salesian Chinese Mother House in Macao. He lived a life of prayer, and humbly served the confreres and boys at the school. He spoke of nothing else and he lived for nothing else.
He became the general assistant, present in the morning to greet the students when they arrived at school, in the playground during recreation, in the refectory when the boys ate their meal. He was like a lovable grandfather who spoke to everyone, had a good word and a smile for everyone, a bit of advice for everyone. That was until illness struck him again after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and finally got the better of him.
The eighteenth of January 2003, the vigil of his 78th. birthday, a Saturday, the day traditionally dedicated to Our Lady, was the day chosen by the Lord for meeting this man who had followed him in his extreme poverty, in his tireless travelling ministry, in his love for young people and for the poor. It could be that Providence was honouring this son of Don Bosco who had sacrificed the very best years of his life, the years from the age of 29 to 56, and had remained faithful to the Church and its Pastor, to the Congregation and to his religious duties.
Brother Yu had experienced the indescribable joy, before concluding his days on earth, of being present in Rome on 1 October 2000 at the canonization of the Chinese martyrs, including two whom he had admired and loved, Bishop Luigi Versiglia and Father Callisto Caravario. And whilst in Rome he had met Pope John Pail II.
(From Lanfranco M. Fedrigotti in “Bollettino Salesiano” - June 2004)