Peter Chen Bolu (23 May 1914 – November 5, 2009) was the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Daming.

Biography

Chen was born in 1914. He was first

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

as a

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

in 1944. He was imprisoned and sent to a hard labor camp during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. Chen was secretly ordained the bishop of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Hongdong The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hongdong/Hungtung ( la, Homtomen(sis), ) is a diocese located in the city of Hongdong in the Ecclesiastical province of Taiyuan. It is centered in the Chinese province of Shanxi. History * June 17, 1932: Establishe ...

by Bishop

Francis Han Tingbi Francis Han Tingbi (; February 22, 1908 - December 21, 1991) was a Chinese Catholic priest and Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hongdong between 1950 and 1991. Biography Han came from a Catholic family who had moved from Shandong to Shan ...

in 1986. He was openly installed and ordained as the Chinese bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Handan on May 29, 1988. Unlike other bishops, Chen's appointment was supported both by the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

and the government of the People's Republic of China. As bishop, Chen oversaw the construction of the Dazhong Hospital within the diocese, which opened in 1994. He also built ten health care clinics throughout the diocese, which is located in

northern China Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climate ...

. He remained at that post until his retirement in 1999. Chen died on November 5, 2009, at the Dazhong Hospital (), which he built, at the age of 96.Bishop Peter Chen Bolu dies at 97: Diocese of Yongnian/Handan doubled in Catholics, thanks to his zealous labor
/ref> At the time of his death, Chen was the oldest

Catholic bishop In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders and is responsible for teaching doctrine, governing Catholics in his jurisdiction, sanctifying the world and representing the Chu ...

in China. His funeral was held on November 11, 2009, in church in the village of Qiancaozhuang, Yongnian District,

Handan Handan is a prefecture-level city located in the southwest of Hebei province, China. The southernmost prefecture-level city of the province, it borders Xingtai on the north, and the provinces of Shanxi on the west, Henan on the south and Shando ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Peter, Bolu 1914 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in China