Joseph Ma Zhongmu

Joseph Ma Zhongmu Tegusbeleg (* 1. November 1919 in Chengchuan in the Republic of China (1912-1949) , formerly Mongolia ; † 25. March 2020 ) was a mongolisch- Chinese Roman Catholic underground - Bishop of the Diocese of Yinchuan (Dioecesis Nimsciianus;天主教 宁夏 教区) in the Ningxia Autonomous Region .

Life

Joseph Ma Zhongmu was born in Russia shortly after the October Revolution , as a result of which the national Chinese took the opportunity and in 1919 fully reintegrated Mongolia into the Republic of China .

Ma studied theology at Datong Seminary , Shanxi Province . After he was ordained a priest on July 31, 1947, he graduated from Fu-Jen Catholic University and worked in the dioceses of Zhongwei and Hohhot. Two years later, how Mao won the civil war and built the communist dictatorship. Joseph Ma Zhongmu, who refused to join the Patriotic Association, the official church in China, was sentenced to prison, then forced labor, and interned in a labor camp by the Chinese government between 1958 and 1969 , and then worked as a worker. After his release as a "counter-revolutionary" he returned to Mongolia between 1969 and 1979, where he worked as a worker in a water tank.

Joseph Ma Zhongmu was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Yinchuan Nov. 8, 1983 and was in office until his retirement in 2005. On the part of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association was John Baptist Liu Jingshan ordered from 1984 to 2009 as a diocesan bishop. He returned to China in 1979, but was recognized by the Chinese government not as a bishop, but only as a priest, despite his complete rehabilitation. In 2005 he retired and lived in his hometown of Chengchuan in Mongolia.

He was the only Mongolian bishop in the world and knew the entire history of the Church in China from the imperial era to the present with the communist regime. As the only Catholic prelate of the Mongolian ethnic group in the Catholic Church, he translated the Roman missal into his Mongolian language , although the Curia was never able to check this because there was no Mongolian contact person in the Vatican .

See also

• Religion in the People's Republic of China

Web links

• Entry on Joseph Ma Zhongmu on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Entry on Joseph Ma Zhongmu Tegus document on gcatholic.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} "Msgr. Giuseppe Ma Zhongmu, the only bishop of Mongolian ethnicity, has died. He was 101 years' old " on asianews.it from March 26, 2020, accessed on April 1, 2020 (English)
2. ↑ ^{a b} "Mongolia's first bishop dies at 101" on catholicculture.org from March 26, 2020, accessed on April 1, 2020 (English)
3. ↑ ^{a b} "Muere a los 101 años Joseph Ma Zhongmu Tegusbeleg, el único obispo mongol" on vidanuevadigital.com from March 27, 2020, accessed on April 1, 2020 (Spanish)