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Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei

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In this Chinese name, the family name is Kung.
His Eminence

Ignatius Pin-Mei Kung
Cardinal,
Bishop of Shanghai
Kung in 1949
DioceseShanghai
SeeShanghai
Appointed15 July 1950
Installed1950
Term ended12 March 2000
SuccessorJoseph Fan Zhongliang
Other post(s)
Previous post(s)
Orders
Ordination28 May 1930
Consecration7 October 1949
by Antonio Riberi
Created cardinal30 June 1979 (in pectore)
28 June 1991 (revealed)
by Pope John Paul II
RankCardinal-Priest
Personal details
Born
Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei

(1901-08-02)2 August 1901
Shanghai, Qing China
Died12 March 2000(2000-03-12) (aged 98)
Stamford, Connecticut, United States of America
BuriedSanta Clara Mission Cemetery, Santa Clara, California
Nationality Republic of China
Ordination history of
Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei
History
Priestly ordination
Date28 May 1930
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorAntonio Riberi
Co-consecratorsJames Edward Walsh
Simon Zhu Kaimin
Date7 October 1949
Cardinalate
Elevated byPope John Paul II
Date30 June 1979 (in pectore)
28 June 1991 (published)
Styles of
Ignatius Kung
Reference styleHis Eminence
Spoken styleYour Eminence
Informal styleCardinal
SeeShanghai
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Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei (simplified Chinese: 龚品梅; traditional Chinese: 龔品梅; pinyin: Gōng Pǐnméi; Wade–Giles: Kung P'in-mei; 2 August 1901 – 12 March 2000) was a Chinese Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Shanghai from 1950 until his death in 2000. He spent 30 years in prison for defying attempts by China's Communist Party to control Catholics in the country through the government-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. At the time of his death in exile in the United States, he was the oldest member of the College of Cardinals, to which he was secretly appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1979.

Biography

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Kung was born in 1901 into a Shanghai family with Catholic roots spreading back at least five generations.[1] He would become a priest in 1930, Bishop of Souchou in October 1949 just after Mao Zedong drove Chiang Kai-Shek to Taiwan,[2] and Archbishop of Shanghai on 15 July, 1950.[3] As Archbishop during the first half of the 1950s, Kung alongside Guangzhou's Dominic Deng Yiming refused to renounce the Vatican despite the demands of and threats by Mao,[4] to whose regime religious martyrdom had already become an embarrassment, since liturgical services became sites of anti-Communist demonstration.[3]

Declassified Chinese government documents confirm that Mao's aim was to completely destroy the Catholic Church in China, not merely to bring it into line with the regime.[5]

On September 8, 1955, Kung, along with several hundred priests and Church leaders, was arrested and imprisoned. He was sentenced five years later to life imprisonment for counter-revolutionary activities,[6] and replaced by Louis Zhang Jiashu, who was not approved by the Pope.[7] When replaced by Zhang, Kung was found guilty in a public trial of

charges of cooperating in "a scheme of US imperialists and the Vatican to subvert the Chinese people's democratic regime".[8]

Kung was secretly named a Cardinal in pectore in the consistory of 1979 by Pope John Paul II. When that consistory occurred the press almost generally believed Kung was the in pectore cardinal.[9][10] The formula in pectore is used when a pope names a cardinal without announcing it publicly in order to protect the safety of the cardinal and his congregation. After he was released in 1986, Kung was kept under house arrest until 1988, despite the efforts of his family to permit him to leave China. Under the escort of his nephew Joseph Kung,[11] Ignatius left China for medical treatment[12] and settled in the United States. In his first interview after being exiled, Kung highlighted how there was no freedom of religion in China.[12]

Kung learned he was a cardinal during a private meeting with the Pope in the Vatican in 1989,[1] and his membership in the College of Cardinals was made public in 1991.[13][14] By then, he had reached 80, so he did not have the right to participate in a conclave.

Kung died in 2000, aged 98, from stomach cancer in Stamford, Connecticut. His funeral was held at St. John the Evangelist Church (now the Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist) in Stamford with Cardinal James Francis Stafford, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, presiding. Kung's body was then transported to Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco, California, for a Low Mass with Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi of Taiwan presiding. A requiem Pontifical High Mass using the Tridentine Liturgy in Latin was said the following day at Five Wounds Parish in San Jose, California, with Cardinal Shan again presiding.

Kung is interred next to Dominic Tang, S.J. (Archbishop of Canton, China) at Santa Clara Mission Cemetery in Santa Clara, California.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b Noll, Mark A.; Nystrom, Carolyn (March 24, 2011). "Ignatius Cardinal Kung/Kung Pin-Mei: A Catholic Valiant for Truth". Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia. pp. 265–266, 272. ISBN 9780830868612.
  2. ^ Flinn, Frank K., ed. (2007). "Kung Pin-Mei, Ignatius". Encyclopedia of Catholicism. pp. 411–412. ISBN 9780816075652.
  3. ^ a b Leung, Beatrice; Liu, William Thomas (2004). Chinese Catholic Church in Conflict: 1949-2001. Universal Publishers. pp. 67–68. ISBN 9781581125146.
  4. ^ Lamport, Mark A., ed. (June 2018). "China, History of Missions In". Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South. Vol. 1. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781442271579.
  5. ^ Mariani, Paul Philip (2011). Church Militant Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9780674063174.
  6. ^ "Obituary – Ignatius Cardinal Kung". Cardinal Kung Foundation. 2000-03-12. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  7. ^ Zhu, Rachel Xiaohong (2020). "Bishop Jin Luxian and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association of Shanghai". In Chu, Cindy Yik-yi; Mariani, Paul P. (eds.). People, Communities, and the Catholic Church in China. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 48.
  8. ^ "Is 78-yr.-Old Chinese Bishop a Cardinal 'in pectore'?". The Catholic Advance. Wichita, Kansas. August 30, 1979. p. 8.
  9. ^ Frazier, Nancy (August 31, 1979). "Cardinal Named 'in pectore' May Be Chinese Bishop Kung". Lake Shore Visitor. Erie, Pennsylvania. p. 6.
  10. ^ "Shanghai Bishop Thought To Be "in pectore"". The Catholic Advance. Wichita, Kansas. August 30, 1979. p. 7.
  11. ^ Qian, Mary (2007). "Renewal". The Victimized. p. 194. ISBN 9781467828819.
  12. ^ a b Pritchard, Bill (November 11, 1988). "Church in China: Inside Differences, Outside Messages". The Messenger. Belleville, Illinois. p. 17.
  13. ^ "His Holiness John Paul II Biography". Holy See Press Office. 30 June 2005. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  14. ^ Mancini, Marco (2014-01-09). "Concistoro in arrivo... numeri e curiosità del recente passato". Korazym.org (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  15. ^ "Highlights of the Funeral". Cardinal Kung Foundation. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
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Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Bishop of Shanghai
1950–2000 		Succeeded by
Previous:
New position 		Bishop of Suzhou
1949–1950 		Next:
Joseph Xu Honggen
Preceded by Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto Vecchio
1991–2000 		Succeeded by
Records
Preceded by Oldest living Member of the Sacred College
12 July 1993 – 28 November 1994 		Succeeded by
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