Meet the Chinese Catholic priest with a big heart and a knack for solving problems with his ears

In 2014, a young Chinese man was on the verge of suicide. In his darkest hour he read an online blog written by a Catholic priest, and it saved his life.

Around the same time, a husband and wife believed their marriage was over. In a last-ditch effort to save it they turned to a holy man they knew and asked if they could talk through their problems with him. He agreed. They did. And their marriage lived on.

The man of the cloth in both those stories is Father Paul Han Qinping. Born into a Catholic family in Wuwei, western China’s Gansu province, the 48-year-old knows he does not possess any special powers. But over the years he has come to realise that through his writing, his sermons and, most of all, by listening to people, he can at least sometimes help them to find the solutions they need to life’s biggest problems.

“It was when the young man left me a message, saying that after reading my blog he decided not to kill himself that I realised that what I wrote could actually help to save lives,” he told the South China Morning Post.

“He got in touch with me later via [messaging service] WeChat and told me about his suffering and pain. After pouring his heart out he gradually began to feel better about himself, and he now lives a very healthy life.”