Father Francisco Carin, a student of Father Mark Fang and delegate superior of the Claretian Missionaries in East Asia, recalls his professor as someone who was able to keep his theological thinking updated and challenging
Renowned Jesuit biblical scholar, Father Mark Fang Chih-jung died at the age of 94 on March 2 at an infirmary in Taipei, in Taiwan. He was born in Guichi, Anhui, China, on 23 November 1926. He joined the Jesuits in Salamanca, Spain and was ordained a priest on 28 June 1955 in Palencia, Carrión de los Condes, Spain.
Father Fang was the first Chinese to receive a doctorate in Biblical studies from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He was fluent in nine languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Chinese. During his over 50 years of ministry in Taiwan he held important positions such as president of the Jesuit Province of China, dean of the Faculty of Theology at Fu Jen Catholic University, and director of the Institute of Religious Studies.
I had the opportunity to meet him during my early years in Taiwan when I studied for my licentiate in Theology at St. Robert Bellarmine School of Theology at Fu Jen 22 years ago. There were many things that drew me close to him from our first meeting: he studied in Spain, at Salamanca, and I was Spanish and our Claretian congregation had, in the past, one of its main formation centres in Salamanca, and many of my teachers came from there. Second, He was originally from Anhui, the Chinese province were in 1930s the Claretian Mission of Huangshan was located, a mission that we received from the Jesuits. I had been there a few times. We shared some thoughts on this issue.
Then, he was my teacher on the life of Christian communities of the primitive Church according to the New Testament writings. I remember him as a professor not only well versed in his field of study, but also as someone who was able to keep his theology updated through the years; some of his insights were surprising even for freshers like me who just had finished theology. Indeed, at that time he was already over 70-years-old and the senior among the teachers and theologians in Taiwan, but he was able to keep his theological thinking updated and challenging, and that was something to be praised.
It is said that he liked go around the whole Fu Jen University campus each day… who knows, maybe that was his way of keeping his interest in research and his theological thinking updated; seeing young people, how they evolved throughout the years.
It is said that he liked go around the whole Fu Jen University campus each day… who knows, maybe that was his way of keeping his interest in research and his theological thinking updated; seeing young people, how they evolved throughout the years. I have heard his companions say that everyday he used to read five different newspapers and that speaks a lot about his intellectual research.
I remember too, my conversation with him regarding the translation of the Christian Community Bible into Chinese. Unfortunately, the project ran into severe criticism for the alleged errors in translation. I started sharing with him and, contrary to my expectations, he said that, “yes, there are some controversial points, but they are not so important. Even the current official version also has its own “inaccuracies.” In his opinion, many were opposed, not on account of the translation itself, but because of the strong liberation theology background of the footnotes and explanations. But Father Fang considered the commentaries the strong point of the Christian Community Bible, which could help Chinese people to read and understand the Bible from a new perspective.
Later, when the Claretians undertook to produce an entirely new translation of the New Testament in modern Chinese, with commentaries and footnotes for each paragraph, Father Mark Fang dutifully consented to be the final editor of the translation work. The Pastoral Bible Foundation published the new translation in 2014.
One of the pillars of Chinese Biblical research is gone. Let us hope that many others, especially laypeople, take Father Fang’s baton and continue enriching the universal Church with a Chinese reading of our Biblical tradition.
Francisco Carin, CMF
Claretian Missionaries,
East Asia Delegation Superior
