Patrick Cleary

Patrick Cleary (3 March 1886 – 23 October 1970) was an Irish missionary priest who served as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nancheng, China.

[1] He served the Society in Nancheng, China beginning in 1931, replacing the martyred Columban priest Cornelius Tierney who had been kidnapped by communist guerrillas and subsequently died.

[1][2] After arriving in Nancheng, he wrote to a friend that "It is simply delightful, with a charming church, a compound full of buildings that would house an army.

For instance, while a bishop, he did not adopt the approach to build congregants by taking in and baptising abandoned children.

[5] During World War II (1939-1945), according to an obituary, he aided people that needed assistance, including Doolittle's Raiders, who had crashed near the city in 1942 after bombing Tokyo.

[8] He stayed in China until 15 December 1952, when he was expelled[9] held under house arrest for one year, imprisoned, and taken to court on "trumped up charges" of being an imperialist and oppressor after he refused to join a communist-sponsored church.

[9] According to Brendan O Cathoir of the Irish Times, Cleary defended Terence MacSwiney following his fatal hunger strike.

[12] Cleary made clear that though he did not support hunger strike as means to suicide (long considered a mortal sin by the Catholic Church), he considered it to be “theologically justifiable,” if used to draw attention to the policies of the British government towards Ireland at the time.

[4] In June 1957, after returning from China, he ordained William Patrick Kinane in Thurles, Ireland at the Cathedral of the Assumption.