Cardinal Zen Allowed to Leave Hong Kong to Attend Pope’s Funeral

The 93-year-old cleric regained his passport, which was confiscated under the Beijing-imposed national security law in 2022, for the trip.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, recipient of the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom speaks at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation's ceremony in his honor, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 28, 2019. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 93-year-old retired bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, has been allowed to attend Pope Francis’s funeral being held at the Vatican on Saturday.

The cardinal’s passport was held by the Hong Kong government following the cleric’s arrest under a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2022.