By Father Rob Carbonneau, C.P., Ph.D., Director Emeritus, USCCA
In 2024, local Chinese Catholics in Yuanling, Hunan, China dedicated this memorial marker to remember the 9 United States Passionists, 6 Sisters of Charity from Convent Station, New Jersey, 1 Grey Sister from Canada and 1 lay doctor from Germany. All gave their lives in service alongside the people in China for the sake of the Gospel.
This journey of Lent 2025 provides us the opportunity to recognize international grief. Who might you know: relative, friend, or person of the past? How might their memory enable us to live with grace in the world of today? How might all of us open our hearts and minds through prayer, conversation, listening, friendship and dialogue to bring reconciliation in the face of international grief? In what way does the sacrifice of twentieth century missionaries to China assist us as we witness the Gospel locally and with peoples of the world?
Father Robert Carbonneau served as Executive Director of the US-China Catholic Association from 2014—2017. At the Ricci Institute, he is historian and curator of the Passionist China Collection (PCC), an archive of over 10,000 photos and 60,000 documents, photographs, reports, films, and correspondence that reveal the twentieth century Passionist-based mission in Hunan, China.
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