AsiaNews: Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang (see photo), the underground bishop of Shanghai, who had spent almost 20 years under house arrest, died yesterday at the age of 97. He had been gravely ill for the past 10 years. The date and place of his funeral are still unknown. It is highly probable that the government, who never recognized him as a bishop, will force the faithful to celebrate a low-profile liturgy stripped of any Episcopal insignia.
Born in 1918, in 1938 he joined the Society of Jesus and became a priest in 1951. In 1955, when Mao Zedong aimed to eliminate all bishops and priests who did not want to break their bond with the Pope, he was arrested along with the city’s bishop, Msgr. Ignatius Kung Pin-mei. Since then, he has spent about 30 years in prison or forced labor camp. Read more here.
UCANews has more on the funeral here. The government capitulated in regard to the viewing of the Jesuit Bishop’s body due to protests from the whole Church in Shanghai. But they removed the Bishop’s mitre, as the Communists do not recognize (sic) his episcopal ordinariate.
