Prominent US Jesuit Priest Dies In Taiwan
By UCA News
An American Jesuit priest has died has died just a week after receiving Taiwanese citizenship, reports say.
Father Daniel Ross, a former dean of Fu Jen Catholic University’s sociology department, died on July 22 at age 84.
Taiwan recently changed its naturalization laws allowing foreign individuals to hold dual citizenship.
Most of those awarded citizenship have been Catholic missionaries who have spent decades in Taiwan.
Ross was born in Wisconsin in 1933 and arrived in Taiwan in 1960 after having studied Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.
He took Chinese language classes in Hsinchu and then went on to teach English in Changhua County before studying in the Philippines for three years. After returning to Taiwan in 1966, he became a priest in Hsinchu.
He later obtained a Ph.D. in sociology in the U.S. before starting a teaching career at Fu Jen in New Taipei City.
The Jesuit priest once said he saw education as more than just teaching, but as a basis for understanding the needs of society, culture and other people.
He was handed a Taiwanese ID card on July 14, reports said.
