Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei Explained

Type:Cardinal
Honorific-Prefix:His Eminence
Ignatius Pin-Mei Kung
Honorific-Suffix:Servant of God
Cardinal,
Bishop of Shanghai
Diocese:Shanghai
See:Shanghai
Appointed:15 July 1950
Enthroned:1950
Ended:12 March 2000
Successor:Joseph Fan Zhongliang
Ordination:28 May 1930
Consecration:7 October 1949
Consecrated By:Antonio Riberi
Cardinal:30 June 1979 (in pectore)
28 June 1991 (revealed)
Created Cardinal By:Pope John Paul II
Rank:Cardinal-Priest
Birth Name:Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei
Birth Date:2 August 1901
Birth Place:Shanghai, Qing China
Death Place:Stamford, Connecticut, United States of America
Buried:Santa Clara Mission Cemetery, Santa Clara, California
Nationality:Stateless
Cardinal Name:Ignatius Kung
Dipstyle:His Eminence
Offstyle:Your Eminence
Relstyle:Cardinal
See:Shanghai

Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei (; 2 August 1901  - 12 March 2000) was the Catholic Bishop of Shanghai, China, from 1950 until his death in 2000. He spent 30 years in Chinese prisons for defying attempts by China's Communist government to control Catholics in the country through the government-approved Catholic Patriotic Association. At the time of his death he was the oldest member of the College of Cardinals.

Biography

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.[1]

Kung was secretly named a Cardinal in pectore in the consistory of 1979 by Pope John Paul II. 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, he was kept under house arrest until 1988. Kung learned he was a cardinal during a private meeting with the Pope in the Vatican City in 1988, and his membership in the College of Cardinals was made public in 1991.[2] [3] By then, he had reached 80, so he did not have the right to participate in a conclave. Kung left China in 1988 and settled in the United States.

He 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.[4]

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Obituary - Ignatius Cardinal Kung. 2000-03-12. Cardinal Kung Foundation. 2018-01-08.
  2. Web site: His Holiness John Paul II Biography . Holy See Press Office . 30 June 2005 . 28 January 2014.
  3. News: Concistoro in arrivo... numeri e curiosità del recente passato. Mancini. Marco. 2014-01-09. Korazym.org. 2018-01-08. it-IT.
  4. Web site: Highlights of the Funeral. Cardinal Kung Foundation. 2007-06-02.