- Thomas Tien Ken-sin
Thomas Cardinal Tien Ken-sin, SVD (田耕莘; "
Hanyu pinyin ": Tian Gengxin) (October 24 ,1890 —July 24 ,1967 ) was a Chineseprelate of theRoman Catholic Church . He served as Archbishop ofBeijing from 1946 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 byPope Pius XII .Background The Church in China 1939-1958
For centuries, access to the people of China was difficult for the
Catholic Church , because as a Church, she did not recognize localConfucian customs of honouring deceased family members. To the Chinese, this was an ancient ritual, to the Vatican, it was a religious exercise, which conflicted withCatholic dogma . As a result, the Church made little progress in China. Within month of his election,Pope Pius XII issued a dramatic change in policies. On December 8, 1939, the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of Faith issues at request ofPius XII new instruction, by which Chinese customs were no longer consideredsuperstitious , but a honourable way of esteeming one's relatives and therefore permitted by Catholic Christians. [Jan Olav Smit, Pope Pius XII, London, 1951, 186-187.] The Government of China establisheddiplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1943, within a short interval. The Papal degree changed the ecclesiastical situation in China in an almost revolutionary way. [Smit 188] As the Church began to flourish, Pius established a local ecclesiastical hierarchy, and, received the Archbishop of Peking,Thomas Tien Ken-sin SVD, in to the Sacred College of Cardinals. [Smit 188.] After WWII, about four million Chinese were members of he Catholic faith. This was less than one percent of the population but numbers increased dramatically. In 1949, there existed* 20
archdioceses ,
* 85dioceses
* 39apostolic prefecture s
* 3080 missionaries
* 2557 Chinesepriest s [Alberto Giovanetti, Pio XII parla alla Chiesa del Silenzio, Milano, 1959, 230]The establishment of Mao Zedong's communist regime in 1949 put these early advances on hold and led to the persecution of thousands of clergy and faithful in China. A
Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association was formed. The losses in the following years to theRoman Catholic Church were considerable. For example, in 1948, the Catholic Church operated some 254orphanage s and 196hospital s with 81628 beds. [Herder Korrespondenz Orbis Catholicus, Freiburg, 5,1950, 201] Catholic clergy experienced increased supervision. Bishops and priests were forced to engage in degrading menial jobs to earn their living. Foreign missionaries were accused to be foreign agents, ready to turn the country over to imperialist forces. [Giovanetti, 232] TheHoly See reacted with severalencyclicals andapostolic letter s,Cupimus Imprimis Ad Apostolorum Principis andAd Sinarum Gentes Biography
Thomas Tien Ken-sin was born in
Chantsui ,Yangku , to Kilian Tien Ken-sin and his wife Maria Yang. Baptized in 1901, he studied at theseminary inYenchowfu before being ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Augustin Henninghaus, SVD, onJune 9 ,1918 . Tien then did pastoral work in the Yangku Mission until 1939. He entered the Society of the Divine Word onMarch 8 ,1929 inHolland , taking his first vows onFebruary 2 ,1931 and his final ones onMarch 7 ,1935 . He was raised to Apostolic Prefect of Yangku onFebruary 2 ,1934 .On
July 11 ,1939 , Tien was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Yangku and Titular Bishop of "Ruspae". He received his episcopal consecration on the followingOctober 29 fromPope Pius XII himself, with Archbishops Celso Constantini and Heinrich Steicher, MAfr, serving as co-consecrators. Tien was later made Apostolic Vicar ofQingdao onNovember 10 ,1942 .He was created Cardinal Priest of "S. Maria in Via" by
Pope Pius XII in theconsistory ofFebruary 18 ,1946 . Tien, the first cardinal fromChina , was then named the first Archbishop ofBeijing onApril 11 of that same year. In 1951 he was exiled from China by the Communist regime, and spent this time inIllinois in theUnited States , to where he came that year for treatment of aheart ailment [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809060,00.html Red Hats]February 11 ,1957 ] . He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1958 papal conclave, which selectedPope John XXIII , and wasApostolic Administrator ofTaipei fromDecember 16 ,1959 to 1966. From 1962 to 1965, he attended theSecond Vatican Council , and voted in the 1963 papal conclave, which selectedPope Paul VI .Tien died in Taipei, at age 76. He is buried in the metropolitan
cathedral of that same city.Trivia
*The Cardinal's last name is also listed as Tien ken-Sin Tung-Lai.
*He greatly promoted devotion toOur Lady of China [Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. [http://www.nationalshrine.com/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=etITK6OTG&b=309285&ct=151374 The Great Upper Church] ] .
*For the 1946 consistory, Tien was forced to borrow from the wardrobes of the late Cardinals Mundelein, O'Connell, and Hayes [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792623,00.html On the Roads to Rome]February 18 ,1946 ] .
*Tien was the first Cardinal also from the Society of the Divine Word.
*He also spent time in a West Germanhospital [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,863976,00.html The Succession]October 20 ,1958 ] .
*TheHoly See has not recognized any of CPCA-approved successors of Tien as Beijing's archbishop.References
External links
* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-t.htm#Tien Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church]
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/btienk.html Catholic-Hierarchy]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873271,00.html Tien's Appointment to Taipei]
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