Native name 정진석 Term ended 10 May 2012 Ordination March 18, 1961 Archdiocese Seoul Name Nicolas Jin-suk Consecration October 3, 1970 | See Seoul Successor Andrew Yeom Soo-jung Appointed April 3, 1998 Installed 29 June 1998 Predecessor Stephen Kim Sou-hwan | |
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Other posts Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria Immacolata di Lourdes a Boccea
Apostolic Administrator of P’yong-yang Education Pontifical Urban University | ||
Nicholas Cheong Jin-Suk (born 7 December 1931) is a South Korean Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Seoul, from 1998 until retirement in 2012, having previously served as Bishop of Cheongju from 1970 to 1998, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2006.
Biography
Cheong Jin-Suk briefly studied chemical engineering at the Seoul National University before entering the seminary in Seoul, from where he later obtained his bachelor's degree in theology, in 1954. After studying sociology in Hong Kong, he was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Paul Kinam Ro on 18 March 1961.
Cheong then did pastoral work in Seoul until becoming a professor at its minor seminary and notary of its archdiocesan curia in 1962. He was chancellor of the curia and undersecretary of the Catholic Conference from 1964 to 1965, and episcopal chancellor and vice-rector of the Minor Seminary from 1966 to 1967. He then studied canon law in Rome, whilst residing at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, from October 1968 to 1970.
On 25 June 1970, Cheong was appointed the second Bishop of Cheongju by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 3 October from Archbishop Kinam Ro, with Bishops James Pardy, MM, and Peter Han Kong-ryel serving as co-consecrators, in the Church of the Holy Family in Cheongju. Cheong was later promoted to the third Archbishop of Seoul on 3 April 1998. In addition to his duties in Seoul, he was made Apostolic Administrator ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of P'yong-yang on 6 June of that same year. He was elected President of the Korean Episcopal Conference in 1998 as well, thus serving as the spokesman for the Church in Korea.
Pope Benedict XVI created him Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria Immacolata di Lourdes a Boccea in the consistory of 24 March 2006. Cardinal Cheong Jin-Suk was later appointed to the executive committee of the Pontifical Council for the Family in the Roman Curia on the following 6 May, and to the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See on 3 February 2007. He was also later appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
In accordance with Universi Dominici gregis, on his 80th birthday, 7 December 2011, Cardinal Cheong Jin-suk lost his curial memberships and vote to enter a conclave. His resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI on 10 May 2012. He was succeeded by Andrew Yeom Soo jung.