Church’s Oldest Cardinal Dies

BRIDGEPORT — Cardinal Ignatius Kung, who spent 30 years in prison for defying attempts by China’s communist government to control Catholics through a state-run church, died March 12 in Stamford. At 98, he was the oldest cardinal in the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Kung died from stomach cancer at the Stamford home of his nephew, Joseph Kung. He had been living there and at the Bridgeport dioceses’ Queen of the Clergy retired priests’ home since he was released by the communists from house arrest and allowed to come to the United States in 1988. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1901, he was named bishop of Shanghai and the apostolic administrator of Souchou and Nanking in 1950, just days after the communists founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Bishop Kung was tried by the communists and sentenced to life in prison for leading a “counterrevolutionary clique under the cloak of religion.” He was released in 1985.

In 1991 he was formally installed into the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II.

In July 1999 at a special Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated in Stamford, Cardinal Kung marked three milestones: the 70th anniversary of his ordination as a Catholic priest; the 50th anniversary of his installation as a bishop; and the 20th anniversary of his elevation to the College of Cardinals.

The Most Rev Edward M. Egan, bishop of Bridgeport, expressed sympathy about the death of Cardinal Kung.

“All the Catholic faithful in the Diocese of Bridgeport express their heartfelt sympathy on the passing of this heroic man of God,” Bishop Egan said. “It has been a privilege to host the cardinal here in our diocese since 1988 when he was released from 30 years of imprisonment and solitary confinement under the communist regime in China in testimony of his faith.”

A funeral mass will be celebrated on Saturday, March 18, at 11 am at St John the Evangelist Church, 279 Atlantic Street, Stamford.