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The USCCA is proud to announce the addition of four new members to the organization's Board of Directors. Jim Gradoville Jim has lived and worked in China for twenty years in both the corporate and non-profit sectors, and while he is not a China scholar or linguist, he has an abiding interest in the relationship between China and the United States and the world. He believes we need to build bridges wisely with China and the USCCA is committed to that in its own special way. His experience as Board chairmen of The Beijing Center from 2007 to 2011 introduced him to the work of the Jesuits in China and kindled a fond appreciation of their work and the long-standing commitment by the Catholic Church to engage both the Church in China and the government. He has worked in roles such as: deputy director of the International Potato Center (CIP) China; CEO of the World Wildlife Fund-China; non-P&L president of United Technologies Corporation-China; and vice president, Motorola - Asia Pacific Government Relations. He has served as Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce – China Board of Governors. Damiano Servidio Damiano is a vice president and underwriting manager with Everest Insurance. Prior to joining Everest he worked at Zurich Insurance (US) for 20 years, where he served in various management roles in both underwriting and claims. Damiano received his Juris Doctorate from Saint Louis University School of Law (1992) and a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University (1989). He is an active member of St. Cecilia’s Church in Rockaway, New Jersey and has been a Knight of Columbus (Council #3359), serving in a range of officer roles since 2006. Damiano has served as a volunteer for the USCCA over the past 3 years. Rev. John S. Chen, Ph.D. Fr. John Chen currently serves as a pastor in the Boston Archdiocese. After graduating from Boston College with Ph.D. in Higher Education in 2003, he went back to China to serve the Catholic Church as the executive vice rector of the National Seminary in Beijing. During his tenure, the seminary was transformed from one single class of seminarians into an institution with about 200 students (seminarians, priests, religious sisters and laity), as well as a graduate program in theology. He published a book entitled The Rise and Fall of Furen University, Beijing (Routledge-Palmer, New York). Br. John Chrysostom Liting Long, OSB While pursuing undergraduate studies in China, John Chrysostom took advantage of a library in the nearby Catholic cathedral. There he met and received instructions from the pastor and was baptized in 2002 at age 23. In 2007 he entered the National Seminary of the Catholic Church in China, Beijing, where he completed a year of philosophy. In the seminary, John Chrysostom was influenced by a visiting Saint Ottilien Benedictine monk from South Korea who introduced him to lectio divina (meditative reading of Scripture) and sparked his interest in monastic life. He completed a bachelor’s degree in Theology from Saint John’s University and now serves as a Faculty Resident, living in Mary Hall with some fifty undergraduates. He was appointed Assistant Guestmaster of the Abbey Guesthouse in May 2021. We welcome these new board members and look forward to their contributions to our mission!

Father Francis Cui Qingqi, OFM, was ordained as Bishop of Hankou/Wuhan on September 8, 2021. He is the sixth bishop ordained under the 2018 Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and China and the fourth consecrated since the accord was renewed in October 2020. The Provisional Agreement was signed in Beijing on September 22, 2018, by representatives of the Vatican and China with the shared hope of fostering a path of institutional dialogue and contributing positively to the life of the Catholic Church in China, to the good of the Chinese people, and to peace in the world. Bishop Cui filled the post which has been vacant since Franciscan Archbishop Bernardine died on May 12, 2007. Born in Xiangyuan of Shanxi province in 1964, Bishop Cui was ordained a priest in 1991. He has been the administrator of Wuhan Diocese and parish priest of the cathedral since December 2012. He was appointed deputy secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC) in 2016 and became the provincial president of the Catholic Patriotic Association of Hubei in January 2018. Read more from Vatican News here >

Politics are being transformed by religion, namely in China—within the next thirty years, one-third of this potential superpower could be Christian. If this religious transformation occurs, China would be one of the largest Christian nations in the world. David Aikman, former Beijing bureau chief for Time, unveils this spiritual revolution, detailing the impending political-religious conversion of the People’s Republic of China and potential overthrow of its Communist Party through Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming and Changing the Global Balance of Power.