Bishop Peter Wu Junwei of Yuncheng, a diocese in Shanxi, died May 10, 2022. The 59-year-old suffered a heart attack induced by work-related stress.
Bishop Wu was born into a devout Catholic family in the town of Xiliulin, in the outskirts of Taiyuan (Shanxi Province), in 1963. He was the eldest of six siblings. One brother became a priest while a sister joined a religious congregation.
He himself entered the junior seminary in 1982. Eight years later he was ordained a priest in the local diocese.
From 1991 to 1996 he served as parish priest in Shagou. Then he was placed in charge of diocesan affairs until 2001. Between 2001 and 2009, he served as rector of the Shanxi Major Seminary, where he himself had studied. In September 2009 he moved to Yuncheng, and a year later he was appointed the ordinary bishop in the local diocese, consecrated with the approval of both the Holy See and Chinese authorities.
Bishop Wu’s great-uncle, Saint Peter Wu Anbang, suffered martyrdom during the Boxer rebellion of 1899-1901, and was canonized in 2000 as one of 120 holy Chinese martyrs.
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