Joseph Meng Ziwen

Joseph Meng Ziwen (Chinese孟子文; born March 19, 1903 in Hengling; † January 7, 2007 in Nanning ) was Roman Catholic bishop of the Archdiocese of Nanning in south China's Guangxi Province.

Life

Meng, son of non-Christian parents, was baptized as a teenager. In 1921 he entered the seminary and studied in the then British Penang philosophy and theology. In 1935 he received the priesthood in Nanning.

When the Communists after the Civil War in 1949 took power in China, they accused Meng collaboration with the Kuomintang. Beginning of the 1950s Meng was sentenced to a labor camp, came in 1957 to release it again. One year he worked as a priest in Nanning, he was arrested and convicted again. Only in 1970 he was released from prison. With approval by Pope John Paul II Joseph Meng Ziwen 1984 was consecrated bishop of Nanning.

Communist China did not recognize the bishop, however, since Meng was not part of the official Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, but the unofficial Roman Catholic Church in the People 's Republic of China was one that recognizes the primacy of the Roman Pontiff over the Catholics of China and as underground church there.

Meng died of cancer at the age of 103 years.