Retired Chinese bishop, doctor, historian dies at age 85

Published: 2006-03-08

HONG KONG (CNS) -- Catholics in Hebei province are mourning the loss of retired Bishop Peter Fan Wenxing of Hengshui, who died Feb. 28 at the age of 85. The funeral Mass for Bishop Fan was held March 4 in Jing county. His body was buried in a Catholic cemetery in the county. The deceased church leader was "like a father and a good shepherd to me," Coadjutor Bishop Peter Feng Xinmao of Hengshui told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand, March 6. Bishop Fan entered the minor seminary in 1935. He studied in major seminaries in Jing county and Beijing, 1941-47. In 1950, two years after he was ordained a priest, he was appointed administrator of Hengshui, when foreign missionaries were expelled. Bishop Fan worked as a doctor in a hospital and preached until the beginning of China's 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Many church-owned properties were confiscated by the state during that period, and religious followers faced persecution. Bishop Fan was sent to a salt field for reform.

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