Early life and education On April 13, 1901, Paul Yu Pin was born to Yu Shuiyuan () and Xiao Aimei, in Shuangmiaozi (雙廟子, today's
Lanxi County), Hulan Subprefecture (呼蘭廳), under the jurisdiction of the Heilongjiang Military Governor in China's northeast (a region not yet established as a formal province at the time). The Yu family traced its ancestral roots to Yujia Village,
Changyi County,
Laizhou Prefecture,
Shandong. In the
late Qing dynasty, Yu Pin's great-grandfather, Yu Wencheng,
made the journey through
Shanhaiguan to settle in Heilongjiang. When Yu Pin was six years old, his father Yu Shuiyuan passed away, and a year later, when he was seven, his mother, née Xiao, also died. Yu Pin was therefore raised by his paternal grandparents. His grandfather practiced traditional Chinese medicine, and the family lived in modest circumstances. Like other boys in the village, Yu Pin tended the family's pigs, though he did have the opportunity to receive an education at a private village school.
Orphaned at age 7, he was
baptized in 1914 after encountering
missionary priests near
Lansi, where he lived with his grandfather. Yu attended the provincial
normal school in
Heilongjiang, the
Jesuit Aurora University in
Shanghai, and the
seminary in Jilin.
In Rome In 1924, Yu was sent to
Rome, where he studied at the
Pontifical Urbaniana University (earning his
doctorate in theology) and
Pontifical Roman Athenaem S. Apollinare. He also studied at the
Royal University in
Perugia, from where he obtained a
doctoral degree in
politics. Yu worked to develop the
Catholic Action network across China, working especially closely with
Frédéric-Vincent Lebbe. Yu was
ordained to the
priesthood on 22 December 1928 by Archbishop
Giuseppe Palica, and then taught at the Urbaniana University until 1933, when he returned to China. Upon his return, he was named
secretary of the Chinese
nunciature, and
Inspector General of
Catholic schools in China. In 1933, Rome approved a national Catholic Action Society and appointed Yu as its clerical head. Also that year, the Chinese cleric supported two bills before the
House Immigration Committee that allowed Chinese to
enter and become
citizens of the United States under the
quota system. Yu, following his return to China, was promoted to the rank of a
Metropolitan Archbishop when his vicariate was elevated as such by
Pope Pius XII on 11 April 1946.
After the communist revolution In 1949, the
People's Republic of China expelled him from his
see, and he resumed his exile in the United States. During this time, the Archbishop dedicated himself to helping
Chinese Americans and raising funds for
refugees from the PRC in
Taiwan, where he was made
rector magnifico of
Fu Jen Catholic University in 1961. He was one of Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek's closest advisors, and on the brink of McCarthyism, Archbishop Yu Pin made claims against Americans he thought were pro-Communist that turned out not to be true. Yü attended the
Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. During the
Council he asked the Pope to address the issue of
communism; however the Council did not address communism or socialism.
Communism is a militant atheism and a crude materialism. In a word, it is a compilation of all heresies, and it must be treated as such, if the truth is to be defended. [The Council] must dispel the confusion created by the doctrine of
peaceful co-existence, by the policy of the outstretched hand, and by Catholic communism, as it is called, all of which are stratagems calculated to assist communism and to create obscurity, doubt, or at least hesitation in the minds of Christians. In this matter the utmost clarity is now required. He was created
Cardinal Priest of
Gesù Divin Lavoratore by
Pope Paul VI in the
consistory of 28 April 1969. Upon his resignation as Fu Jen's rector on 5 August 1978, he was named its
Grand Chancellor. In 1976 he had become the first director of
Dharma Realm Buddhist University's Institute for World Religions (now attached to Berkeley Buddhist Monastery). He died from a
heart attack at age 77 in Rome, where he had gone to participate in the
conclave following Pope Paul VI's death in August 1978. Yu is interred in a
mausoleum on the campus of
Fu Jen Catholic University in
Xinzhuang, Taipei County, in Taiwan. ==Further reading==