By KIMBERLY ACEVEDO
"He knew if we remained in China there was no way we could study to be priests," said the Rev. Luke Wei of St. Finbar in Brooklyn, who was only 13 when Father Yang led him out of China. "We walked, took the train, bus, truck . . . all kinds of transportation to the city of Shanghai."
Father Yang, a former priest at St. Ignatius Martyr R.C. Church, died of cancer at his home on Tuesday, Dec. 31. He was 90.
It was just two years after Father Yang was ordained for the Archdiocese of Mukden, China in 1948 when his last order came. He gathered his young students, and they left Peking (now Beijing) with little money and only the clothes on their backs.
Father Yang led the students south toward Shanghai, Wei recalled. Money was scarce, and the group traveled by any means possible. Sometimes they walked or took the train, but many times they hitched rides on the backs of pickup trucks, Wei remembered. They were fed by families they met along the way. They were never far from danger, but Father Yang forged ahead.
At times, "they were literally running with bullets flying after them," recalled the Rev. Chuck Romano, who served with Father Yang at St. Ignatius Church. Romano, now pastor of Infant Jesus in Port Jefferson, said that Father Yang had shared his past only after Romano asked about it.
When they reached Shanghai, Father Yang and his students boarded a ship bound for Taiwan. Nearly two months after they left Peking, their journey finally ended when they reached the shores of Taiwan, where Father Yang taught his students at a seminary.
"Yang arranged everything -- that's why he is very important to us," Wei said. "He was our leader, and we were his students. He was the only one to lead us out of China."
After 11 years at the seminary, Father Yang headed to Pontifical University for the Propagation of Faith in Rome, where he received his doctorate in canon law in 1963.
He could never again return to his home in China, where he was born on Jan. 2, 1912, Wei said.
During his time in Rome, Father Yang met Walter P. Kellenberg, the bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Kellenberg convinced Father Yang to travel to the United States.
"The sad thing about it, these men who were to be ordained for China ended up giving service outside of their country," said Father Yang's friend, Brother Patrick Murphy, O.S.F., pastoral associate for senior priests in the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
Father Yang served in the Diocese for nearly 40 years. His first assignment, which lasted until 1967, was at the St. Mary Church in Roslyn. He spent part of the following year at Our Lady of Grace in West Babylon, then served at St. Martha's parish in Uniondale for two years before he was incarnated into the Diocese in 1969. Father Yang was one of the first Chinese priests to serve in the Diocese, Murphy said.
During the early '70s, Father Yang was assigned to St. Ignatius in Long Beach, where he remained until he retired in 1982. "Seemed to me he loved being a priest," said Romano, who served with Father Yang shortly before his retirement. "He loved the people of Long Beach.
"He was very friendly, very welcoming and supporting and helpful to me as a new priest," Romano said.
As Father Yang grew older, his health began to fail, Romano recalled. The Diocese essentially assigned Romano to St. Ignatius as a replacement. But, he laughed, that was 25 years ago. "He outlived the predictions," Romano said.
In the early '80s, Father Yang joined the Long Beach Police Department as its chaplain. He would stop by once a week and speak to anyone who needed to talk, Long Beach Police Lt. Eugene Brown recalled.
While Father Yang was quiet and reserved, perhaps it was the three pictures that hung in his apartment that said it all, Murphy said. The photos showed Father Yang marching in a parade with fellow Long Beach P.D. officers, proudly displaying his badge on his suit lapel.
"He loved being a police chaplain, but it didn't get him out of tickets in New York City," Romano said.
Father Yang retired from the police department in the mid-'80s, but settled in Long Beach. In his free time, he was a student practitioner of acupuncture, and often helped friends. His library was filled with books on acupuncture. "Even in his own illness, he treated himself with pain control," Murphy recalled.
At least once a week, well into his 80s, Murphy said, Father Yang played tennis with a group of Chinese priests. And besides playing Mah Jongg, a popular Chinese tile game, he regularly visited Manhattan's Chinatown to socialize with friends and celebrate the Chinese New Year.
A wake was held on Jan. 2 at St. Ignatius, followed by a funeral mass and burial at the Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury. Bishop John C. Dumme presided, and Rev. Luke Wei delivered the sermon for the man who had led him out of China.
