Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Hankow (Agenzia Fides) - Archbishop Bernardino Dong Guangqing, O.F.M., of Hankow (Hankou), in Hubei province, China passed away on 12 May at the age of ninety. He was suffering from cancer of the lung. Born to fervent Catholic parents on 11 April 1917 in Zhangjiazhuang, Xiantao district, 1,230 km south of Beijing, in 1934 he entered the Franciscan Order and was ordained a priest in 1942. He soon showed himself to be enterprising and active in the Catholic community in Hankou. Government pressure concentrated on him and years later Archbishop Dong spoke of the “pure terror” of those times.
He was ordained a Bishop on 13 April 1958, the first unlawful Episcopal ordination in the order of time. In the late 1980s he succeeded in making contact with the Holy See and was admitted to full ecclesial communion. Archbishop Dong was a man of outstanding personality. He was responsible for many initiatives including the opening of the major inter-regional seminary at Wuchang, which gave new life to the Church in that region. But perhaps he will be mainly remembered for his ability to collaborate in pastoral work and evangelisation with two other bishops in the metropolitan area of Wuhan, Bishop Odorico Liu Hede of Wuchang and Bishop Antonio Yang Boren of Hanyang.
With Bishop Wuchang and Bishop Hanyang, he shaped the immense city of Wuhan, the main city of the province of Hubei. Its river port and industry make Wuhan as important as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing. In the city of Wuhan there are about 20,000 Catholics, fifty priests and forty women religious. The Archbishop's funeral was held on 17 May at the Cathedral dedicated to St Joseph, with the participation of all the local priests and thousands of faithful. The Archbishop was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Baiquan. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 24/5/2007; righe 26, parole 342)
