ANKANG (AsiaNews): Bishop John Baptist Ye Ronghua of Ankang, in Shaanxi, China, died on August 28 at the age of 91. He was the first Chinese bishop in what was once the Apostolic Prefecture of Hinganfu before it was erected as the Diocese of Hanzhong in 1928, and managed by Italian Friars Minor Conventual until the expulsion of foreign missionaries in the 1950s.
Bishop Ye was born on 20 June 1931 into a Catholic family in Shankou, a village near Hanzhong, one of the dioceses where missionaries from the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions carried out their ministry in China.
In September 1945, a young Ye entered the St. Joseph Minor Seminary in Hanzhong, later transferring to the regional seminary in Kaifeng, in Henan.
In Shaanxi, priestly training came to an abrupt end when the communists came to power. He had to put a stop to his studies in 1958 and return to Hanzhong. He was finally ordained to the priesthood on 10 December 1981.
In 1987 Bishop Anthony Li Duan of Xian sent him to Ankang and charged him with rebuilding the small Catholic community in this very poor area of Shaanxi. On 10 December 2000, Bishop Li ordained then Father Ye as the official bishop of Ankang; he was soon also recognised by the Holy See.
After he was struck by illness, he asked for and obtained a coadjutor: Bishop John Baptist Wang Xiaoxun, originally from Xian, who was ordained on 30 November 2016 with the recognition of the Holy See and the government.
