Dominic Tang
Dominic Tang Yee-ming was a Chinese Jesuit priest. Appointed Bishop in 1951 and later archbishop of Canton, he spent twenty-two years in jail for his loyalty to the Catholic Church and died in exile in the United States.
Jesuit and Bishop
Tang was born in 1908 in Hong Kong and decided to enter the Jesuit novitiate in Spain in August 1930. Back in China, he studied Catholicism in Shanghai. Tang was ordained a priest in 1941. After his ordination he worked as a parish priest, principal of a primary school and did social welfare work in the Ecclesiastical Province of Guangzhou. Pope Pius XII appointed him on 1 October 1950 as Apostolic Administrator of Canton, and on 13 February 1951 he was ordained titular bishop of Elateia by Bishop Gustave Deswaziere, who said of him: "''By accepting the appointment from the Holy See in these difficult times, the new bishop was showing absolute obedience and a spirit of sacrifice."''Imprisonment
Tang was arrested in 1958. The People's Republic of China charged him as "the most faithful running-dog of the reactionary Vatican". He remained in jail for 22 years in Laogai prison because he refused to sever contact with the Pope, as the government ordered him to.In 1987, he released his book How Inscrutable His Ways! In it he summarized his attitudes while incarcerated for 22 years:
- "In prison, I always asked God to grant me the grace to progress in virtue., e.g. humility and obedience....I obeyed only the regulations which did not conflict with the principles of my faith. I want to be gentle and kind to others, without resisting ill-treatment from others; when controlled and walked on, I did not complain. There are many opportunities for practicing virtue in prison."
- "When I was a seminarian, I learned to do God's will. God's will required me to practice virtue in prison. This was God's love for me."
Later years
In 1980, the Guangzhou Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association affirmed Tang's status as bishop.Later in 1980, Tang met with Agostino Casaroli in Hong Kong, as part of an effort by the Holy See and the People's Republic of China to improve relations. At the time, both the Vatican and the China viewed Tang favorably.
In May 1981, at the age of 73, he was appointed Archbishop of Canton. The Chinese government contended that his appointment as Archbishop went against the principles of the patriotic church's independence. On 22 June 1981, China's Religious Affairs Bureau removed him from his position as an authorized bishop.
Tang was not permitted to return to China. After spending several years in Hong Kong, he went to the United States. He died in Stamford, Connecticut at the age of 87 and was buried at Mission Santa Clara de Asís in Santa Clara, California.