When Pope John Paul II elevated Hong Kong’s Catholic Bishop John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung to Cardinal

“Hongkong’s Catholic Bishop, the Most Reverend John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung, was elevated to Cardinal by Pope John Paul II yesterday,” reported the South China Morning Post on May 30, 1988, in “a move that indicates the growing importance of the local church to the Vatican”.

“A strong supporter of closer links between the local Catholic Church and the breakaway mainland church, 63-year-old Bishop Wu is likely to play an increasingly important role in normalising the sometimes strained relations between the Vatican and China.”

The following month, on June 10, the Post reported that Cardinal Wu “has agreed in principle to visit Shanghai at the invitation of Bishop Jin Luxian of the largest diocese on the mainland [who said] he did not know whether the Hongkong prelate would visit Beijing as he had done so several years ago”.

“Church sources said [Cardinal Wu’s] elevation would play an important role in the initiative to improve Sino-Vatican relations. The mainland prelate disclosed that the remaining two imprisoned Catholic priests would soon be released [...] Bishop Jin said the two were the last priests yet to be set free, although some church sources said more could still be in prison.”

On June 21, the Post reported that Cardinal Wu “left Hongkong last night for his investiture at the Vatican”, where he “will meet the Pope to discuss the administration of the Church in the Far East and address the question of re-establishing ties with the mainland, which broke with the Vatican in 1957.

“Cardinal Wu has been reluctant to say if his elevation indicates a renewed effort to forge formal links although last week he told an audience: ‘I hope I can contribute towards improving relations with China.’”