John Cardinal Wu

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John Cardinal Wu

Styles of John Cardinal Wu

Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Hong Kong

Cardinal Wu, Cheng-Chung John Baptist 胡振中樞機 (March 26, 1925-September 23, 2002), was the fifth Bishop of Hong Kong's Catholic church. He had been a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Wu was born to WU Shing Sing and CHOW Mary, in the village of Ho Hau, in the Country of Wu-hua (Province of Guangdong, Diocese of Kai-ying, China). Baptized in the Parish Church of the same village, also received his primary education there. He Joined the diocesan minor seminary of Ka-ying for his secondary education in 1940.

He was appointed the fifth Bishop of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese by His Holiness Pope Paul VI as successor to Bishop Peter LEI Wang-kei who had died on July 23, 1974. He arrived in Hong Kong and on July 25 was ordained and officially installed as Bishop of the Hong Kong in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

After due preparation, he initiated a Diocesan Renewal Movement for priests, laity and religious.

On March 25, 1985, he led a five-member delegation on a seven-day visit to Beijing and Shanghai, at the invitation of the National Bureau of Religious Affairs under the State Council of China. He was the first bishop of Hong Kong to visit the mainland China. Later on January 21, 1986, he led a seven-member delegation on a ten-day visit to Guangzhou and the eastern part of his home Province, Guangdong, at the invitation of the Bureau of Religious Affairs of that Province. This visit marked the first reunion with his 85 years old mother, after a separation of 40 years.

He was named a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II on May 29, 1988.

After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, on July 11, 1989, he wrote a letter to all the bishops in the world, requesting them to appeal for justice, order and democracy in China.

On September 1, 1991, Wu issued a pastoral letter that exhorting the faithful to give full support to the direct elections to the Legislative Council - the first time in the history of Hong Kong - on 15 September.

In 1999, he convoked the "Diocesan Synod" to meet the pastoral needs of the Third Millennium.

He died on September 23, 2002 in Hong Kong.