Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei (; 2 August 1901 – 12 March 2000) was the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, 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 The Catholic Patriotic Association (), abbreviated CPA, is a state-sanctioned organization of Catholicism in the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1957 after a group of Chinese Catholics met in Beijing with officials from the Chi ...

. At the time of his death he was the oldest member of the

College of Cardinals The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. its current membership is , of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appoi ...

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 A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...

activities. Kung was secretly named a

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

in pectore ''In pectore'' (Latin for "in the breast/heart") is a term used in the Catholic Church for an action, decision, or document which is meant to be kept secret. It is most often used when there is a papal appointment to the College of Cardinals wit ...

'' in the

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church *Consistory ...

of 1979 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

. 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 In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

until 1988. Kung learned he was a cardinal during a private meeting with the Pope in

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

in 1988, and his membership in the

was made public in 1991. 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 Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

. 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 James Francis Stafford (born July 26, 1932) is an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary from 2003 to 2009. He previously served as president of the Pontifical Council ...

, President of the

Pontifical Council for the Laity The Pontifical Council for the Laity was a pontifical council of the Roman Catholic Curia from 1967 to 2016. It had the responsibility of assisting the Pope in his dealings with the laity in lay ecclesial movements or individually, and their co ...

, presiding. Kung's body was then transported to Star of the Sea Church in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, for a

Low Mass Low Mass (Latin ''Missa lecta'', "read Mass") is a Tridentine Mass defined officially in the Code of Rubrics included in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal as a Mass in which the priest does not chant the parts that the rubrics assign to him. A ...

with Cardinal

Paul Shan Kuo-hsi Paul Shan Kuo-hsi, S.J. (; 3 December 1924 – 22 August 2012) was a cardinal in the Catholic Church. He was at times the bishop of Hualien and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and the chairman of Fu Jen Catholic University. Biography Kuo-hsi was born i ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

presiding. A requiem

Pontifical High Mass A Pontifical High Mass, also called Solemn Pontifical Mass, is a Solemn or High Mass celebrated by a bishop using certain prescribed ceremonies. Although in modern English the word "pontifical" is almost exclusively associated with the pope, an ...

using the

Tridentine Liturgy In the Catholic Church, the use of preconciliar rites after the Second Vatican Council has resulted in certain Latin liturgical rites coexisting with older ("preconciliar": "before the Second Vatican Council") versions of those same rites. In the ...

in Latin was said the following day at Five Wounds Parish in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, with Cardinal Shan again presiding. Kung is interred next to

Dominic Tang Dominic Tang Yee-ming, S.J. (Simplified Chinese: 邓以明; Traditional Chinese: 鄧以明; Pinyin: Dèng Yǐmíng; Wade-Giles: Teng I-ming; May 13, 1908 – June 27, 1995) was a Chinese Jesuit priest. Appointed Bishop in 1951 and later archbis ...

, S.J. (Archbishop of Canton, China) at Santa Clara Mission Cemetery in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...

References

External links

Cardinal Kung Pin Mei Foundation, websiteCardinal Kung Academy, website

Cardinal Wung on ''First Things
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kung, Ignatius, Pin-Mei Chinese cardinals Deaths from stomach cancer 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in China Servants of God 20th-century venerated Christians 1901 births 2000 deaths Deaths from cancer in Connecticut Burials at Mission Santa Clara de Asís Cardinals created by Pope John Paul II People from Shanghai Roman Catholic bishops in Shanghai Chinese anti-communists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links