ASIA/CHINA - Death of China’s longest living Bishop ever: Bishop Giuseppe Meng Ziwen 103 years, 20 spent in forced labour: “without those years in detention my health would never have been as strong. Everything I did was a gift from God”.

Nanning (Agenzia Fides) - On 7 January Bishop Giuseppe Meng Ziwen, Archbishop of Nanning, Guangxi province of China 2,767 km south west of Beijing, died at the age of 103. China’s longest living bishop ever was born on 16 October 1903, ordained a priest in 1935, ordained a bishop on 24 March 1984, died naturally of old age and was lucid to the end.
In 2003 the Bishop addressed a letter to the Pope informing him about his life: born to Catholic parents, he studied Nanning Seminary first and then went abroad to study philosophy and theology. Having completed his studies he returned to China in 1935 and was ordained a priest and set to work to evangelise. In 1951 he was arrested and sentenced to 20 years forced labour: he was released in 1970. “I shared the plight of many other prisoners, I understood their suffering and when ever it was possible I shared with them the Word of God” Archbishop Meng wrote in the letter.
After his release he made a living selling fertilisers while evangelising and giving pastoral care to the faithful whenever he could. Following the opening brought about by first changes in government religious policies, he worked to obtain from the government the restitution of Church property.
In a report on his activity in recent years, Archbishop Meng was happy to say that ten new priests had been formed and a good number of local young women had embraced the consecrated life bringing to forty the number of women religious of members of two diocesan congregations, Holy Family Sisters and Sisters of Mary Queen of Angels, and ten new churches had been built. Today in the archdiocese of Nanning there are about 90,000 Catholics mostly living in rural areas.
Bishop Meng always accepted without complaint the events of life with firm faith and inward peace, continuing his pastoral ministry as long as his health and age allowed. Recalling without bitterness or resentment his 20 years of forced labour, he wrote: “I was not maltreated. I was a doctor for the prisoners. Without those years in detention my health would never have been as strong. Everything I did was a gift of God”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 3/2/2007; righe 29, parole 401)