Bishop Wang, Auxiliary in San Francisco,
Retires at Age 75
May 18th, 2009
By Catholic News Service
Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius C. Wang of San Francisco, who turned 75 in February.
The papal decision was announced May 16 in Washington by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Named a bishop in 2002, he was believed to be the first Chinese-born member of the U.S. hierarchy.
Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco announced the pope's acceptance of Bishop Wang's resignation at a May 16 afternoon Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. The Mass had been planned by the Office of Ethnic Ministries and the Chinese Catholic community to celebrate Bishop Wang's golden jubilee of priesthood and his episcopal retirement.
In a May 18 statement, Archbishop Niederauer praised Bishop Wang as "a hardworking and generous servant of the church."
"His dedication and service have been a blessing to the priests and people of the archdiocese and our many ethnic communities, particularly the Chinese Catholic community," he said.
At age 75 bishops are required by canon law to submit their resignation to the pope.
Born Feb. 27, 1934, in Beijing, Bishop Wang (pronounced Wong) was the fifth of eight children in a Catholic Chinese family that was descended from a Manchurian emperor, the rulers of the last Chinese dynasty.
In September 2008 he returned to Beijing's Divine Savior Church, also known as North Church, where he had been baptized, received first Communion and was confirmed. He said his concelebration of a Mass there drew a standing-room-only crowd, because "the fact that a bishop recognized by Rome was going to be celebrating Mass is a big deal."
After studies for the priesthood in Hong Kong, he was ordained for the Prefecture of Kienow, China, July 4, 1959. He earned a doctorate in canon law from what was then known as the Propaganda Fide College in Rome in 1962.
Unable to return to China when he completed his studies, then Father-Wang went to the Diocese of St. George's in Grenada, where he served as a parish priest, head of Catholic schools and vicar general for 12 years.
In 1974 he went to San Francisco, a city where nearly one-fourth of the residents are of Chinese ancestry, to visit his widowed sister, who had cancer. When he realized she was dying he decided to stay in San Francisco. After her death in 1978, he took charge of her three children, then ages 9, 16 and 18.
He served on the archdiocesan tribunal, as parochial vicar in several parishes and as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church for 10 years.
Before his appointment as a bishop in late 2002, Bishop Wang had been coordinator of the Chinese Apostolate in the San Francisco Archdiocese since 1981, archdiocesan director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith since 1994 and chancellor since 1998. He was ordained a bishop Jan. 30, 2003.
As bishop, he served as episcopal vicar for religious and vicar for the promotion of spiritual and apostolic life and ethnic ministries.
At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, he had served on the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Islanders and the board of bishops for the American College in Louvain, Belgium.
Bishop Wang speaks English, Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin and French. In retirement, he will continue to live in San Francisco.