ROME (AsiaNews): Bishop Andrew Han Jingtao, of the unofficial community of Siping (Jilin), died at 11.00pm, Beijing time, on 30 December 2020. He was 99-years-old.
Growing up in a Catholic family, he first studied under the Canadian missionaries from Quebec to whom the apostolic vicariate was entrusted before the communist revolution.
He would spend 27 years in a forced labour camp (1953 to 1980) for refusing to join the government sanctioned official Church.
However, as China began to open up under Deng Xiaoping, Bishop Han was released. He was hired to teach English at Changchun University in Jilin and, a few months later he became associate professor at the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilisations at Northeast Normal University.
He taught undergraduate, master and doctoral students and introduced many to the study of classical cultures and languages (Latin and Greek).
In 1982 he was appointed bishop of Siping, but was only clandestinely ordained in 1986. For several years, he had to divide his time between pastoral work and university commitments.
The bishop retired from teaching in 1987, but not from the Church and missionary work.
Even before his imprisonment, he focused on educating the laity through the Legion of Mary, pushing them to pray, proclaim and engage in charity work. At the same time he had started a congregation of nuns, later called Sisters of Mt. Calvary.
Bishop Han once recounted that in the 1950s, the regime tried to “get rid of the pope’s interference and expel foreign missionaries. At that time, I realised that the Church was facing a great challenge and needed great strength to resist otherwise, she would not be able to stand up. This is why I decided to establish a religious congregation.”
Beginning in 1997, Bishop Han’s home came under constant surveillance making his ministry difficult. Even the Sisters of Mt. Calvary went through a difficult time with convents shut down, members dispersed, secret reopenings, members living in various unofficial communities.
According to the latest figures, the diocese has about 30,000 members, including 20,000 in the unofficial Church and 10,000 in the official community, with 20 priests and a hundred religious Sisters.
The diocese also offers some social services, including an orphanage and a medical centre.
