容我引用依撒意亞先知書的一句（61:1）：「吾主上主的神臨到我身上，因為上主給我傅了油，派遣我向貧苦的人傳報喜訊，治療破碎了的心靈，向俘虜宣告自由，釋放獄中的囚徒。」
在人類歷史中，窮苦的、無權勢的、被壓迫的人從未間斷地出現。
工業革命遺憾地導致瘋狂資本主義抬頭。資本主義家藉著擁有生產技術，剝削無產階級，令他們過着奴隸般的生活。
馬克斯在當時環境，以一個先知的姿態出現，他透過血腥革命作階級鬥爭，推動解放運動。然而「治療令病情更糟」，暴力永遠不會是解決任何問題的方法。所有問題均源自人心：自私、貪婪……當缺少一個關懷的心，任何制度只會變得冷漠無情、非人性化。
共產主義者推崇平等，傳揚友愛精神，但事實卻是——他們摧毁了平等、友愛的基礎：那個我們共同擁有、同樣源自天父那深深植根的尊嚴。
我們知道，所有共產國家，在他們放棄馬克斯主義之前，最後所能實現的只是所有人的「共同貧窮」，他們最主要的「出口」是逃離共產「天堂」的人。
我從未在中國共產黨的統治下受過苦，我於1948年來到香港（加入慈幼會初學院），共產黨在翌年1949年掌權；而我在內地的親友，猶如其他家庭一樣，在這種非人性化的政權下受苦。我大姊的丈夫是個大好人，也被他們逮捕，他們沒有解釋他所犯何事，只給他戴上手銬，送他到鐵路局做苦工，每天在猛烈陽光底下暴曬；幾個月後姐夫獲釋，被遣回家，同樣的，當局從未有一句解釋。
而我那位聰穎的、在交通大學修讀船舶工程的弟弟畢業時，他們拒絕給他頒授證書，更要他從上海到偏遠的福建工作，他們説：因為你的哥哥在香港正在接受成為間諜的訓練。
那個本該只屬臨時性，源於馬克斯主義的所謂無產階級專政，變成共產王國。
1974年，在文化大革命差不多結束前，我有機會重回闊別了26年的祖國去探望家人，實在不明白他們為什麼敢大開中門，讓夠膽的香港人回去。而我當時看到的情景實在完全難以想像！整個國家已成為一個集中營！
所有宗教消失，教堂或被鎖上封門，或變成工廠、倉庫或作其他用途（我堂區的聖堂成為「人民俱樂部」，在那裡可買到一般食物，也有康樂設施）。
而當中國改革開放後，一切再不一樣。我於1984年開始申請到上海修院教書，至1988年下旬申請獲批。而我是於1989年秋天出發到上海，當時正值天安門事件後、每個人都想盡辦法離開中國之時，亦因此我獲得禮遇。他們之後更邀請我到其他修院教學，包括西安、武漢、石家莊、北京、瀋陽，於1989至1996年，我每年也有一半時間於中國教學。
這些年間，他們對我很友善，但我同時看到他們如何虐待並羞辱我們天主教會的人——對地下教會（那些曾繋20年牢獄或勞改營，仍然活著而被釋放出來的教會人士）的騷擾，對地上教會（同樣也是牢獄或勞改營的倖存者）主教的不敬。
今天，這個共產國家只剩下很少的馬克斯主義概念，更多的是無神論、迫害、專政。
你們也知道，最近中國正逐步收緊對各個宗教的控制。你們也知道最近香港發生的事，中國曾承諾給予的高度自治亦已近消失殆盡，香港最終將淪為中國境內一個城市而已。
今天我在這欣悅地接受這獎章，這並非我的榮譽，因為我從未犧牲過太多自由；我是代表那些在中國、在香港為自由而受苦的人，我為這些真正值得擁有這榮譽，但今天卻未能到此領受的朋友，接過獎章。
讓我們記得那些曾為著人性尊嚴及信仰而付出生命的英雄。我們不用悼念他們，他們已享有天主所賜的永恆福樂。那些嘗試摧毁他們尊嚴的人，只是在羞辱及摧毁了他們自身的尊嚴。
我也記著那些於中國及香港正在受苦的知名或無名英雄，他們勇於為人性尊嚴、為自由、為民主而發聲。
今天我在此出現，是要肯定你們（基金會）所作的有意義工作，那能為他們帶來支持，切願我們今天的出席以及每一天的祈禱能為他們送上安慰與力量。
願天主祝福大家。
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Joseph Cardinal Zen’s speech at the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom ceremony by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation —
I quote from Isaiah (61. 1), “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners”.
In human history there were always the poor, the prisoners, the oppressed.
The industrial revolution was unfortunately accompanied by an upsurge of wild capitalism. The capitalists, in possession of the means of production, exploited the proletariat, kept them under slavery.
Carl Marx came on the scene as a prophet, he preached the liberation through class struggle, that means bloody revolution. The medicine was worse than the illness. Violence was never solution to any problem. The problem is in human hearts: selfishness, greed. Without a loving heart any system is doomed to become inhuman.
The communists preach equality, they preach fraternity, but they destroy the foundation of equality and brotherhood which resides in our human dignity rooted in our common origin from Our Father in Heaven.
All the communist countries, to our knowledge, achieved only an equal poverty for everybody, their main exports are human beings fleeing from the Communist Paradise (before they abandoned Marxism).
I have not suffered personally from the Chinese Communist. I came to Hong Kong in 1948 (to join the Salesian Novitiate), the communist took power only in 1949, the following year. My relatives suffered as all families suffered under that inhuman regime especially my brother-in-law, husband of my elder sister, the most sweet person. One day they came to arrest him without saying a word, without saying of which crime he was accused. They sent him to work for the construction or repair of railway, work under the sun. They even shaved his head. After a couple of months they released him, sent him back home, again without any explanation.
My younger brother, a brilliant student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, gradated in naval engineering. But they refused to give him the diploma and sent him to work far away from Shanghai to Fujian, a very poor place. They said, because your brother is being trained as an agent in Hong Kong.
The so-called dictatorship of the Proletariat, which is supposed to be provisional according to Marx, turned out to be the Communist Empire.
I had opportunity to visit my native city, Shanghai in 1974 (after 26 years of absence) before the end of the Cultural Revolution. We did not know why they opened the door ajar for Hong Kong people who dare to go. It was beyond imagination! The whole country was a concentration camp!
All religions disappeared. The churches were either closed with seals or turned into factories, go downs or other uses (my parish church was a “people’s club” where people could get some simple food and recreational facilities).
With the open policy things were very different. I applied to be allowed to teach in the Seminary of Shanghai in 1984, and the permission came in late 1988. I went to Shanghai in the autumn of 1989, right after the Tiananmen Square event, when everybody was getting out of China. They treated me very kindly. Later they invited me to teach also in other seminaries: Xian, Wuhan, Shijiazhuang, Beijing, Shenyang. I could teach in China, 6 months per year, for 7 years (1989-1996).
They treated me very kindly but I could see how they ill-treat and humiliate our people in our Catholic Church: harassment to those underground (coming out from prison or labour camp after more than 20 years, surviving their many companions in prison), no respect even for the Bishops in the official Church (similarly survivors of prison and labour camp).
Today of the true Marxism remains very little, but the atheist, persecutor, distatorship remains intact.
You know the recent tightening of control on all religions in China. You know also the situation in Hong Kong of the promised high degree of autonomy very little remains. Hong Kong is soon to become just one of the cities in China.
I am here today to receive gratefully the medal not in my honor, because I had almost paid nothing for my freedom, but for those who really suffered a lack of freedom in China and in Hong Kong.
I receive the medal for those who deserve it but cannot come here to accept it.
I want to remember all those heroes who offered their lives for the cause of human dignity and freedom. We do not mourn them, they are in God’s blossom in eternal bliss. Those who tried to destroy their dignity, only humiliated and degraded themselves.
I want to remember all those heroes who are suffering in this moment in China and in Hong Kong for voicing their claim respect for human dignity, for freedom and for democracy, those well-known and those anonymous heroes.
May my presence here today confirm your noble work in their support and may our presence today and our prayer everyday bring them comfort and strength.
May God bless us all.