St. Joseph's Cathedral is a

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 ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

located in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

, China. It was completed in 1876, shut down 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 ...

, and re-opened in 1980. The cathedral is located at 16 Shanghai Road, Wuhan.

Architecture

According to the government of Hubei, the cathedral building is a Romanesque Revival two-story structure made of timber and brick. Its total length is and total width is . Its main hall is wide. On each side at the rear of the cathedral, there is a dome-shaped belfry. The cross at the top of the cathedral stands high from the ground. The building area of the cathedral is . It has five altars and can accommodate over 1,000 people.

History

Construction

In 1862, Eustache Modeste Zanoli (Chinese name: ), then

vicar apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

of Hubei, moved the bishop's seat from Yingcheng to

Wuchang Wuchang forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the ri ...

. In 1866, he bought a section of marshland within the English concession of Hankou and turned it suitable for future constructions. In 1875, Zanoli commissioned the Italian missionary Angelus Vaudagna to build St. Joseph's Cathedral. The cathedral was completed in 1876 and costed 120,000 francs.

World War II

On 18 January 1938, during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

, a memorial mass to mourn the soldiers and civilians killed and to pray for world peace. About 2,000 Chinese and foreign expatriates attended, including K. C. Wu. The church building was damaged in the 1944 Operation Matterhorn air raid, and underwent reparation in 1948 and 1956.

People's Republic of China

In April 1958,

Bernardine Dong Guangqing Bernardine Dong Guangqing (April 1, 1917 – May 12, 2007) was a Catholic Patriotic Association-associated Bishop of Wuhan, China. See also *Joseph Ma Yinglin Joseph Ma Yinglin (Chinese: 馬英林; born 1965) is the Chinese Patriotic Catholic A ...

(), a priest of the cathedral, was elected bishop of Hankou. He was the first bishop in China to be elected based on the self-election, self-consecration principle ( zh, s = 自选自圣).

Union of Catholic Asian News The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) is a news agency that covers issues and matters of interest for the Catholic Church on the Asian continent. It was launched in Hong Kong in 1979. Since its foundation, it has become one of the largest Cathol ...

reported that the diocese asked for the approval of the Vatican before the ordination, but the Holy See declined, citing canon law that any ordination of bishops without papal mandate incurs automatic excommunication, with power reserved to the Holy See. The cathedral was shut down during the

and re-opened in 1980.

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 ...

recognized Dong as bishop of Hankou in 1984. In May 2007, the funeral of Dong took place at the cathedral, with Bishop John Huo Cheng presiding. Vatican Radio reported that over a thousand people attended the funeral. In September 2021, Francis Cui Qingqi () was consecrated bishop at the cathedral.

Joseph Ma Yinglin Joseph Ma Yinglin (Chinese: 馬英林; born 1965) is the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association-sponsored Bishop of the diocese of Kunming, China. He was consecrated a bishop on 30 April 2006, at age 41. The diocese had been vacant for 11 years. ...

(), bishop of

Kunming Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...

, led the consecration ceremony.

Religious services

The church offers masses throughout the week. At 7:00 am on the first Saturday of each month, the cathedral offers the

Traditional Latin Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almo ...

, which is relatively uncommon among Chinese churches.

References

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Joseph's Cathedral, Wuhan Roman Catholic cathedrals in China 1876 establishments in China 1876 in Wuhan