Matthew Cao Xiangde

Matthew Cao Xiangde was a Chinese Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Zhejiang, China.

Biography

Cao was born in 1927 in Pudong District, Shanghai. In 1950, he studied in Jiaxing St. Vincent General Monastery, and transferred to Beijing St. Vincent College in 1952, and studied theology at No. 2 of Ximen street, in Haimen, Zhejiang in 1954. Cao completed his priesthood education in the 1980s in Sheshan and was ordained a priest in 1985.
On 25 June 2000, he became the bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hangzhou without a pontifical mandate, despite strong warnings from the Holy See in advance.
In September 2004, he asked the Holy See to be legittimated. On 8 June 2008, he was recognized as bishop, but without any jurisdiction.
He died on 9 July 2021.