At the invitation of his friend Fr. Joseph Zhang, A.A., who is presently living in the Pavel House community in Brighton, Bishop Ignatius Wang visited the Assumptionist Center and celebrated a recent Sunday Liturgy.

Bishop Wang is an Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of San Francisco where he was appointed an auxiliary by Pope Saint John Paul II in 2002. He was the first Catholic Bishop of Chinese Ancestry and of Asian background to be appointed to the U.S.

Bishop Wang came to this country in 1974 and was a parochial vicar in several parishes in the Archdiocese. In 1982 he was appointed pastor of St. Francis of Assisi parish in San Francisco where he was the first Chinese pastor. In 1989 he was made a Monsignor and served in the Archdiocesan Tribunal and as Coordinator of the Chinese Apostolate.

Born in Beijing in 1934, Bishop Wang attended a Regional Seminary in Hong Cong and was ordained in 1959. Unable to serve in China because of the communist government, he was sent to Rome for a doctorate in Canon Law in 1962.

In San Francisco he served under Archbishop William Levada and Archbishop George Neiderauer and where he continues to live after retiring in 2009.

Bishop Ignatius Wang Visits The Assumptionist Center