This is a scanned copy of Henri Pinault’s 1945 French passport issued in China. I personally purchased Pinault’s passport in 2006 in an antique shop in Chengdu city, Sichuan province, China. In May 2009 I made this scanned copy of the passport. Henri Pinault is of historical importance because he was that last Bishop of Chengdu in the Ecclesiastical province of Chongqing. Bishop Pinault was ordained in 1949 after the death of his predecessor, Bishop Jacques-Victor-Marius Rouchouse. Pinault’s full title was Bishop Henri-Marie-Ernest-Désiré Pinault, M.E.P. Pinault was born in 1904 in Tinténiac deanery in Trévérien commune, Ille-et-Vilaine department in Bretagne in northwestern France. He was ordained as a priest in 1929 with La Société des Missions Etrangères and that year he went to China to conduct missionary work. He would remain in China more than two decades. Shortly after Pinault was ordained Bishop of Chengdu in 1949 the Communist forces took Chengdu. Under the communists, Christian clergy members were persecuted and in 1952 Pinault was briefly imprisoned before being expelled from the county. After his expulsion from China Bishop Pinault returned to France. From 1962-1965 Bishop Pinault participated in the Second Vatican Council in Rome. Pinault retained his position as Bishop of Chengdu until his retirement in 1983, despite not having returned to China since his expulsion in 1952. He died in 1987 and is buried in Évran in Bretagne. David Straub 5-30-2009 [email protected]