Joseph Zen Ze-kiun was born in Yang King-pang, near Shanghai, on 13 January 1932, the sixth of the seven children of Vincent Zen and Margaret Tseu. “My parents were Christians." he recalls."My father was so fervent that he wanted to become a priest, but the missionary who baptised him instead convinced him to get married. Even today according to an ancient custom and a practical wisdom, in the Catholic Church there is usually a tendency not to admit those belonging to the first generation of converts to holy orders."
"When I was a child, on Sundays my father took me to five Masses, two in the parish and three in other churches," the Salesian still remembers "but I was never bored. My parents had a good level of education. Unfortunately, during the war with Japan, my father who was an engineer, became seriously ill, and we lost all source of livelihood. For a few years we lived in extreme poverty, and my mother was forced to sell her few jewels to get us bread. The parish priest helped us and, knowing my intentions, directed me to the aspirantate that the Salesians had opened in Shanghai. They welcomed me, and I did the novitiate in Hong Kong. It was a beautiful year. The superior, Fr Charles Braga, was a saint, with a big heart."
In the Salesian Congregation, the future cardinal made his first profession on 16 August 1949 and his perpetual profession on 16 August 1955.
He then studied in Italy, at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Salesian University at the Crocetta in Turin, then in Rome. Ordained a priest in Turin on 11 February 1961, he breathed the air of the Council before returning to Hong Kong in 1964.
Since his return, he was a teacher at the Salesian studentate in Hong Kong and at the Holy Spirit diocesan Seminary. For six years, from 1978 to 1984, he was Superior of the Mary Help of Christians Province based in Hong Kong (CIN). Then, from 1989 to 1996, he taught philosophy and sacramental theology in several Chinese seminaries, including Sheshan, on the outskirts of Shanghai, which houses the seminarians of the dioceses of the eastern provinces of China.
On 13 September 1996, a year before Hong Kong's return to China, Pope John Paul II appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Hong Kong, and he received episcopal ordination the following 9 December. On 23 September 2002 he assumed the leadership of the diocese by right of succession.
He took part, by papal appointment, in the Special Assembly for Asia of the Synod of Bishops in 1998; and on the occasion of the 11th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, in October 2005, he gave a much applauded address on "Sensus ecclesiae and religious freedom", in which he hoped that the government authorities would see "the desirability of a normalisation of the situation" between the so-called Patriotic Church and Underground Church.
At the conclusion of the general audience on Wednesday 22 February 2006, Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to elevate him to the dignity of cardinal. He commented: "This appointment is a sign of the Pope's benevolence and affection for all of China. And if I accept, I accept it for all of China. I am now almost 75 years old and I thought I would retire. Now I don't know what will happen to me. We will follow orders and obey. Perhaps the Pope will need some advice from time to time. There will be a lot to work on China."
The creation as cardinal took place on the following 24 March.
In 2008 he was chosen by the Holy Father to write the meditations for the Via Crucis presided over by the pope at the Colosseum on the evening of Good Friday.
In the Roman Curia he served as a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the 11th Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops and the Special Council for Asia of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.
Able to speak English, Mandarin and perfect Italian without an accent (already learned in Shanghai, in the Salesian formation house, and then perfected in Italy), Card. Zen is also known for his battles for the freedom of the Church, democracy, human rights and freedom of education. At the same time, those who know him directly also note his great simplicity and humanity, sympathy and warmth; as well as, above all, his great love for young people and Salesianity, singing hymns to Don Bosco with the energy of a novice and able to relate to his confreres always as equals, without ever claiming episcopal dignity or his role as cardinal.
In 2023 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
