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Retired Bishop Peter Liu Guandong of Yixian, former acting president of China’s “underground” Church community’s bishops’ conference, died on October 28 at the age of 94.
A report by UCA News said the Vatican-approved bishop, who escaped house arrest and lived in hiding for the last 16 years of his life, was buried in secret by priests and laypeople.
An underground priest, who spoke to UCA News on condition of anonymity, said Bishop Liu was “a key figure” in the establishment of the bishops’ conference in 1989, which “contributed to the continual existence in China of a Church that is loyal to the Holy See.”
Born in 1919, Bishop Liu entered the seminary in 1935 and was ordained a priest in 1945. In 1955, he was arrested and imprisoned for two years for opposing the independent Church movement.
In 1958, he was arrested again and received a life sentence for opposing the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a government-sanctioned body that promotes an independent Church. When he was eventually released in 1981, he began to evangelize across China.
Liu was consecrated coadjutor bishop of Yixian in 1982 and became the ordinary four years later. After suffering a stroke in 1994, he resigned from all his posts, but was placed under house arrest in Weigezhuang, his hometown.
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Image: UCA News
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