Coadjutor Bishop of Beijing Visits Saint John's Abbey

Following the approval of Pope Francis, Reverand Matteo Zhen Xuebin was consecrated as the new Coadjutor Bishop of Beijing on Friday, October 25, 2024.

Bishop Matteo, a Saint John’s University School of Theology graduate, visited his alma mater last weekend, residing with the monks of Saint John’s Abbey. He then departed with Abbot Douglas to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA., to attend the centennial anniversary of Fu Jen Catholic University, founded in China by Benedictines from Saint Vincent Archabbey and later relocated to Taiwan.

In 1922, Cardinal Willem Marinus van Rossum, C.Ss.R., prefect of the Propaganda Fide, asked the Benedictines in America to establish a Catholic university in China. Three years later, Archabbot Aurelius Stehle, O.S.B., of Saint Vincent Archabbey, sent two monks to Peking.

About one dozen Benedictines ran Fu Jen University until 1933 when financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression forced them to relinquish control of the institution. The Society of the Divine Word, a German missionary congregation, operated Fu Jen until 1952 when the Chinese Communist Party closed all missionary universities.

In the early 1960s, Fu Jen University was re-established in Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, Taiwan, at the request of Pope John XXIII. Saint Vincent Archabbey sent monks to help to work as teachers and established Wimmer Priory. Fu Jen has expanded rapidly over the past 30 years. It comprises 12 colleges and a hospital with more than 25,000 students.