Bishop Matthias Tuan In-min, 92, Was Picked by Pius XII
BEIJING, JAN. 12, 2001 (ZENIT.org-FIDES).- Bishop Matthias Tuan In-min of Wanxian, the last Chinese bishop appointed by the Holy See, died Jan. 10, af ter several months of illness. He was 92.
The funeral will be held Sunday. His body will be cremated, compulsory for all Chinese citizens except Muslims. The ceremony will be held in the Sacred Heart Church of Longbao, in central China.
The priests who assisted him at his bedside day and night told the Vatican agency Fides that his last words were of encouragement, especially for young clergymen and his people. "Be faithful to your ministry, take care of the people and build up the Church," he said, according to the priests.
The wide esteem Bishop Tuan enjoyed was evident by the official statement issued by the Chinese government after his death. "Bishop Tuan did much for China and for the Catholic Church in China," the statement said. "He was loved and esteemed by all."
In an interview with Fides on Oct. 16, 1998, the 20th anniversary of John Paul II's election to the papacy, Bishop Tuan said: "I pray for the Pope every day, for his mission, his health, and I ask the Holy Spirit to sustain his service to humanity. I would also like to express my profound loyalty to him.
"On behalf of Chinese Catholics, I can say that they love him deeply, that they pray for him daily, and that they join me in this message of congratulations. We Chinese Catholics wait in fidelity and prayer for his visit to China. He has shown great love and concern for the Church in China. We firmly hope that one day he will come to visit our country."
The Chinese government prohibited Bishop Tuan and his auxiliary from attending the synod of Asian bishops in Rome in April 1998. According to Zhu Bangzao, the Chinese Foreign Minister, the reason was that the Vatican's "appointment of these two persons" was "unilateral and arbitrary."
Despite the fact he ran the risk of being accused of maintaining relations with a foreign state, Bishop Tuan sent a fax in Latin to Cardinal Jan Pieter Schotte, saying: "Sadly, I am unable to take part in the synod for political reasons. My heart was so heavy with grief that for two nights I was unable to sleep. Then a great calm entered my heart: The body is absent, but the heart is ever present at the synod of bishops."
Neither was Bishop Tuan allowed to travel to New Delhi, India, to participate in the official closing of the Asian synod and receive the postsynodal exhortation Ecclesia in Asia from the Pope. However, through a Hong Kong delegate, he sent the Holy Father a gift: three hand-carved wooden combs, of Wanxian craftsmanship.
In November 1999, after the discovery of a secret document of the Chinese Communist Party regarding its policy toward the Catholic Church, Bishop Tuan told Fides: "For our part, we hope that the Holy See and China will soon reach an agreement to establish diplomatic relations. However, at the moment, China and the Vatican have two different ways of looking at certain problems. We hope they will soon find a common vision." Then the ailing bishop added: "The Patriotic Association is a barrier to Church communion." The association is the Church created and controlled by the Communist regime.
Tuan studied theology at the Pontifical Urban University, and was ordained a priest in Rome on March 27, 1937. Pope Pius XII appointed him bishop of Wanxian on June 9, 1949. He and Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-mei, archbishop of Shanghai (who died in the United States last March), were the two last bishops appointed officially for China by a Pope.
Bishop Tuan ordained eight bishops, the majority from the region of Sichuan, and assisted at the ordination of an additional six. In Sichuan Province, he was vice director of the Catholic Church Administrative Commission and vice chairman of the Catholic Patriotic Association.
During the Cultural Revolution, Bishop Tuan spent 10 intermittent years in cotton and battery factories, and an additional 10 years in reform labor camps and indoctrination schools until 1979, when he was allowed to return to the Church in Wanxian.
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12. januar 2001