Don Bosco’s Sons Who Became Cardinals
Bp. Joseph Zen Ze-kiun
(ANS – Rome – Sept. 22, 2023) – The first Salesian cardinal of Asian
origins, as well as the first Salesian cardinal chosen by Pope Benedict XVI,
came from Hong Kong in 2006: Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, an eminent figure of the
Chinese Church, a pupil of the Don Bosco of China, Servant of God Fr. Charles
Braga, as well as a champion of the rights of his people.
Joseph Zen Ze-kiun was born in Yang King-pang, near Shanghai, on January 13, 1932, the 6th of the 7 children of Vincent Zen and Margaret Tseu. “My parents were Christians,” he recalls. “My father was so fervent that he wanted to become a priest, but the missionary who baptized him instead convinced him to get married. Even today according to an ancient custom and a practical wisdom, in the Catholic Church there is usually a tendency not to admit those belonging to the first generation of converts to Holy Orders.”
“When I was a child, on Sundays my father took
me to 5 Masses, 2 in the parish and 3 in other churches,” the cardinal still
remembers. “But I was never bored. My parents had a good level of education.
Unfortunately, during the war with Japan, my father, who was an engineer,
became seriously ill, and we lost all source of livelihood. For a few years we
lived in extreme poverty, and my mother was forced to sell her few jewels to
get us bread. The parish priest helped us and, knowing my intentions, directed
me to the aspirantate that the Salesians had opened in Shanghai. They welcomed
me, and I did the novitiate in Hong Kong. It was a beautiful year. The
superior, Fr. Charles Braga, was a saint, with a big heart.”
In the Salesian Congregation, the future
cardinal made his first profession on August 16, 1949, and his perpetual
profession on August 16, 1955.
He then studied in Italy, at the School of
Theology of the Salesian Pontifical University, the “Crocetta,” in Turin, then
in Rome. Ordained in Turin on February 11, 1961, he breathed the air of the Second
Vatican Council before returning to Hong Kong in 1964.
On his return, he was a teacher at the
Salesian studentate in Hong Kong and at the Holy Spirit diocesan seminary. For 6
years, from 1978 to 1984, he was superior of the China Province, based in Hong
Kong. Then, from 1989 to 1996, he taught philosophy and sacramental theology in
several Chinese seminaries, including Sheshan, on the outskirts of Shanghai,
which houses the seminarians of the dioceses of the eastern provinces of China.
On September 13 ,1996, a year before Hong Kong’s
return to China, Pope John Paul II appointed him coadjutor bishop of the Hong
Kong Diocese, and he received episcopal ordination the following December 9. On
September 23, 2002, he assumed the leadership of the diocese by right of
succession.
He took part, by papal appointment, in the special
assembly for Asia of the Synod of Bishops in 1998. On the occasion of the 11th
Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2005, he gave a
much applauded address on “Sensus ecclesiae and religious freedom,” in which he
hoped that the government authorities would see “the desirability of a normalization
of the situation” between the so-called Patriotic Church and Underground Church
in mainland China.
At the conclusion of the general audience on
Wednesday, February 22, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to
elevate him to the dignity of cardinal. He commented: “This appointment is a
sign of the Pope’s benevolence and affection for all of China. And if I accept,
I accept it for all of China. I am now almost 75 years old, and I thought I
would retire. Now I don’t know what will happen to me. We will follow orders
and obey. Perhaps the Pope will need some advice from time to time. There will
be a lot to work on China.” His creation as cardinal took place on the
following March 24.
In 2008 he was chosen by the Holy Father to
write the meditations for the Via Crucis presided over by the Pope at the
Colosseum on the evening of Good Friday.
In the Roman Curia he served as a member of
the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the 11th Ordinary Council of
the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, and the Special Council for
Asia of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.
Able to speak English, Mandarin, and perfect
Italian without an accent (already learned in Shanghai, in the Salesian
formation house, and then perfected in Italy), Cardinal Zen is also known for
his battles for the freedom of the Church, democracy, human rights, and freedom
of education. At the same time, those who know him directly also note his great
simplicity, humanity, sympathy, and warmth; as well as, above all, his great
love for young people and Salesianity, singing hymns to Don Bosco with the
energy of a novice and able to relate to his confreres always as equals,
without ever claiming episcopal dignity or his role as cardinal.
In 2023 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace
Prize.
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