Underground Catholics publicly attend funeral of open Church bishop
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Ucan) - The funeral of a 90-year-old bishop of the open Catholic Church attracted underground Catholics who wanted to pay him tribute, thereby bringing together both Chinese Catholic communities.
Bishop Francis Xavier Guo Zhengji of Bameng (Bayan Nur League), Inner Mongolia, died on May 3 due to lung failure. The funeral of the papal-approved and government-recognized prelate was on May 7 at Sanshenggong Church, Dengkou county, 812 kilometers west of Beijing, where he had been residing since 1985.
Father Matthias Du Jiang, vicar general of Bameng and head of diocesan affairs, said that local underground Catholics attended the funeral and burial service despite tight security. The 41-year-old priest said he appreciated their presence which, in light of already existing contacts, was "a good sign of communion of the two Church communities in the area."
An underground Church Catholic stressed that about 30 underground Catholics attended the funeral. Their presence was well received by the open Church, the state-approved Catholic Church in China. "There is hope for dialogue and cooperation between our two sides because both belong to one family," he commented.
Underground Catholics, whose community is not state-approved, wanted to show sincerity "through action" -- by paying respects to papal-approved Bishop Guo, offering condolences to the open Church and expressing their own conviction that "the two Church communities are one family," the source explained.
Underground Catholics have been under threat of an official crackdown, so all who went to the funeral thereby risked their own safety, but they did so only with the blessing of their leader, Bishop Joseph Ma Zhongmu of Ningxia. The same source also noted that Bishop Ma, an ethnic Mongolian whom the government recognizes only as a priest, could not attend due to illness.
More than 1,000 Catholics, including 30 priests of various dioceses and 40 nuns, were at the funeral and later burial at a local Catholic cemetery.
Bishop John Liu Jingshan of Ningxia, Bishop Guo's seminary classmate, Bishop John Liu Shigong of Wumeng, whom Bishop Guo taught, and Bishop Francis Tong Hui of Yan'an in neighboring Shaanxi province concelebrated the funeral Mass. Dozens of ethnic and religious affairs and security officials also attended.
Bishop Guo died five days after his discharge from a hospital in Yinchuan, 17 kilometers south of Dengkou, where he was receiving medical treatment since early March. His lung problem, the priest added, recurred with the change of weather every spring since 1999 when he was hospitalized for a lung ailment.
With the passing of Bishop Guo, Father Du said the priority for Bameng diocese is to improve local Church management in a systematic way by setting up a council of priests as well as finance and pastoral committees. He said the diocese has 21 priests, 30 Religious sisters and 30,000 faithful. A source said a small number of Bameng's Catholics belong to the Mongolian ethnic minority but most ethnic Mongolian Catholics are near Bishop Ma's area.
Bishop Guo was born of a Catholic family in Dengkou county on April 15, 1914. He entered the local minor seminary in 1929 and was ordained a priest of Ningxia diocese in 1942. After graduating from the Chinese Department of Fu Jen Catholic University in Beijing, he taught at two major seminaries for six years before becoming diocesan procurator.
While serving a sentence of "reform-through-labor" in 1958-1978, he worked on two farms and in a salt field. Upon his release in 1979, he resumed his work as a priest. In October 1990, he was ordained the first bishop of Bameng, a diocese created in the open Church that covers part of Ningxia diocese in the northwestern Inner Mongolia region. Today, Bameng diocese comprises Bayan Nur League, Wuhai city and Alxa League, Father Du pointed out.
Bishop Guo was fluent in Latin, French and English. He enjoyed writing and dared to express his opinions to the government and Church authorities. In 1997, he took part in a Church delegation visit to Belgium, where he described the Church in China as "recovering and developing quickly" since the early 1980s, and "flourishing" with new Baptisms, churchgoers and vocations.
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