The only Catholic priest of Dali diocese in southwest China´s Yunnan province died Jan. 24, according to the March 2 issue of "God Loves China," a supplement to the Hong Kong Chinese Catholic weekly Kung Kao Po.
Father Peter Liu Hanchen, 88, parish priest of Dali Church was ordained in 1933 and appointed administrator of Dali diocese in the early 1950s.
The report said Father Liu was a beloved and hardworking pastor who served the Church and the Catholic community despite his old age.
In the early 1950s Dali diocese had about 5,000 Catholics and 50 churches but during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution all churches there were closed and used as warehouses or factories.
A Church researcher in Hong Kong told UCA News March 2 that now there is only one elderly nun, Sister Huang Dezhen, taking care of Shangguan Church, one of Dali´s two remaining churches. The other church is in Dali city, 260 kilometers northwest of Kunming, Yunnan´s provincial capital.
The researcher said two Dali seminarians finished their studies last year at the Sichuan Seminary in Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan, western China. They will probably be ordained later this year.
END
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