Before we leave 1941 behind and face the aftermath of Pearl Harbor I would like to tell you about a heavy loss the vicariate of Kaifeng and the whole of the Catholic Church in Honan suffered. Msgr. Tacconi, the first vicar of the whole of Honan Province, and later the dean of the nine vicars who were heads of the nine vicariates of Honan, decided after nearly forty-five years of work in the missions and nearly thirty as a vicar that it was time for him to resign and hand over the reins to a younger man. He accordingly returned to Rome, and in the summer of 1941 his successor was appointed; Monsignor Barosi, also of the Milan Foreign Mission Society.

After his appointment, Msgr. Barosi made a visitation of all the mission stations of the vicariate. In early November he went down into the county of Liu-I. He visited one mission station and to this station came the pastors of two other stations to escort him to their stations. The pastor of the station then being visited decided to accompany them, and so the four, together with the Vicar's personal servant, set out for Ting Tsun. This was a small Village in no-man's land, between the Japanese and Chinese lines. Arriving at the station they were greeted by the Christians. In the church a Te Deum was sung and the vicar-elect spoke to the people. Dinner was then served. During this meal there suddenly appeared sixteen men in soldiers' uniforms, one in an officer's uniform. All Christians were ordered out and the gates were closed. The bishop's servant was told that because he was Chinese they had no intention of harming him. He was accordingly bound and placed in the sacristy from which he later managed to escape. What little we know of what followed was learned from him. In the church proper the vicar-elect and the three priests were bound and gagged. The mission buildings were looted and left in disorder. The four priests were beaten and then killed. Toward evening the intruders left, but the mission gate was still closed. The Christians then forced their way in. At first they could find no trace of their pastor and the others. Then the bodies were discovered in the well.

The servant managed to get back through the lines and notified another mission station which sent the news to Kaifeng. But with four men already sacrificed it seemed impossible to reach the village from this side. It was about two-hundred-fifty miles from Kaifeng. When missionaries from the Chinese side of no-man's land managed to reach Ting Tsun they found that the brigands had not opened the Tabernacle, but the virgins who acted as catechists for the mission had consumed the hosts not knowing what might happen. The Christians had washed the Fathers; clothing and re-dressed the bodies. The vicar-elect they had dressed in vestments. They had secured coffins in which to place the bodies, had placed them in the church, :and were keeping guard over them. It was impossible to bring the bodies out for burial, so that took place on the spot, with a hope of some day transferring them to the mission cemetery in Kaifeng.

Who were the men responsible for this outrage? Were they brigands or communists dressed as soldiers to discredit the Nationalist Government? Was the attack Japanese inspired? Was it revenge? We didn't know then; we don't know now. And so Msgr. Tacconi had the sorrow of out-living his successor. The vicar-elect was only thirty-nine years of age. The ages of the three priests ranged from twenty-seven to thirty-seven.