The body of Bishop Joseph Liu Yuanren, a senior leader of the Catholic community in China, was cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, in central Beijing, Thursday.

On April 20, at 18:08 p.m., the bishop died of illness in Beijing at the age of 81.

Senior officials including Jia Qinglin, Hui Liangyu and Liu Yandong attended the ceremony. Chinese Catholic and Christian leaders Fu Tieshan and Ding Guangxun have mourned Liu's death in different ways.

Liu was born into a Catholic family in Qidong County, Jiangsu Province, east China on February 24, was ordained in 1953, and became the bishop of a diocese in 1993.

He was a member of the Ninth and Tenth Standing Committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), vice-chairman of the Second Peace Committee of China's Religious Circle, chairman of the Chinese Catholic Bishops College, vice chairman of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, and president of the National Chinese Catholic Seminary.