A Model for All Who Preach the Gospel
On World Mission Sunday in the Holy Year 1975, on 19 October, Pope Paul VI beatified Fr Joseph Freinademetz, S.V.D., offering him to the whole Church as a model missionary to be followed and a patron to be invoked. In the words of Pope Paul VI: "He is the model and patron of all who preach the Good News in distant lands ...". The Holy Father also used this occasion to emphasize the importance of China to the world and the missionary apostolate of the Church.
Since that memorable day, devotion to Bl. Joseph has increased not only in Europe, but also on other continents: China, Asia, Oceania and America. The 13,000 pilgrims who each year come to Oles, his birthplace, to pray and ask for his intercession is a concrete testimony of this growing devotion. Many Chinese consider Bl. Joseph as their protector and intercessor at the throne of God, confirmed by the 4,270 signatures from Chinese living on Mainland China, the Philippines and Taiwan. They pray that Bl. Joseph may be canonized during the Holy Year 2000. To these must be added the 79,000 signatures received from the Philippines and the 14,500 signatures from the different parishes in the Diocese of Bolzano requesting his canonization.
Fr Joseph Freinademetz reached China in April 1879, shortly after his 27th birthday. He served as a missionary in China for almost 29 years. He died in 1908 after devoting himself wholly to the Chinese people. He never returned to Europe. With the passing of years, the Tyrolean in him began to wane, giving way to a Joseph Freinademetz who was genuinely Chinese. He constantly looked outwards, generously seeking to cooperate with God as God was working in his own life and with the promptings of the people and the circumstances of his time.
Acclimatizing to his new homeland and understanding its people proved far more difficult to Bl. Joseph than he had expected. His letter and reports in the first two years in China showed that he had had a negative opinion of the Chinese people and was even critical of their beliefs. Yet, despite all this, Bl. Joseph admitted after the first few years: "I would never give up this dignity of being a missionary here, even in exchange for the crown of the Emperor of Austria".
Although he was a man of his time, yet he was also a man who knew how to overcome the prejudices of his age, eventually becoming a model China missionary for all ages. His interior transformation took place little by little as he took up his missionary work in South Shantung in 1881. This was the first missionary territory entrusted by the Holy See to the young Congregation of the Divine Word (S.V.D.), founded only six years earlier (1875) by Bl. Arnold Janssen at Steyl on the border between the Netherlands and Germany.
One of the most outstanding qualities of Bl. Joseph was his extreme goodness. Bishop Henninghaus, S.V.D., his Bishop and loyal friend for 20 years wrote: "He possessed that goodness which never tires and which wins over people's hearts; that inexhaustible patience and love which makes one forget oneself. Christians, new converts and the simple people had the same affection for him as children have for their grandparents". It was this genuine love for the people which enabled him to change his views about the Chinese. He did not believe that it was possible to be a good missionary without a true love for the people. In 1884 he wrote: "The Chinese are an intelligent and highly talented people; even the simple peasants know how to express themselves as if they were doctors. In many ways they outshine the Europeans".
Again and again he declared: "The Chinese people are a wonderful people with excellent qualities and virtues. I love China and her people, and I would willingly die a thousand times for them.... I also want to remain Chinese when I am in heaven". His missionary brothers and sisters knew that he would never allow them to make any negative remarks or judgements about the Chinese. His Bishop noted: "He eventually became so Chinese that he would never allow any criticism of them, just as a mother would never allow her children to be criticized".
Yet, his great love for China did not diminish his deep affection for his Tyrolean homeland. In his letters he frequently recalls the mountains, the people and the local customs of his homeland. But he knew that God was asking him to make this radical sacrifice as a pledge of blessings on his missionary apostolate. He offered this sacrifice with an heroic spirit. He became the spiritual guide of the South Shantung mission, acting as episcopal vicar when the Bishop had to travel to Europe, organizing many Christian communities throughout the territory and serving as religious superior of the S.V.D. missionaries for many years.
During the course of his 29 years of missionary activities in China, he often came very close to receiving the palm of martyrdom. The colonialist policies of the Western powers quite naturally generated hatred for all foreigners, the missionaries included. Bl. Joseph and his fellow missionaries and sisters also became the object of this understandable hatred. Yet, his untimely death was due to his tireless devotion to his missionary vocation. Towards the end of 1907, typhoid fever struck the South Shantung mission. Visiting and caring for the sick, Bl. Joseph was also infected and died of typhoid on 28 January 1908. On his deathbed, he urged his missionary brothers and sisters to minister to and care for the sick, with the conviction he had so often repeated: "We came here to serve".
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