Chen Xilu

Mattia Chen Xilu, Mathias Chen Xilu, (Chinese陈锡禄, Pinyin Chén Xilu; born February 6, 1928 in Ji, Hebei Province, Republic of China, † 16 January, 2008 Hengshui, China ) was the Catholic bishop of Hengshui in Hebei, China. He spent 20 years because of his faith in Chinese prisons and labor camps.

Life

Mattia Chen Xilu came from a Chinese family for generations Catholic. He settled first as a teacher for the elementary school to train, but resigned in 1950 in the seminary of the diocese of Shanghai. Officially, he studied medicine during his priestly formation. In 1955 he was ordained priest by the Bishop of Shanghai Ignatius Kung Pin- Mei.

He was then officially worked as a doctor as well as parallel as a pastor in the underground Catholic Church. In China, the Catholic Church is regulated state; the recognition of the Roman Catholic Church under papal authority is prohibited. 1951 relations were broken off to the Vatican on governmental order.

Mattia Chen Xilu was first arrested in 1958 and sentenced to seven years in prison and three years of forced labor. After his release in 1969 he was arrested again and detained a further ten years in a labor camp. After his release in 1979, he worked as an English teacher, in the underground, he worked as a priest. It was not until 1980 he was able to pursue his priestly ministry in public; He also founded the Department of Ophthalmology, the Catholic Xi Lu Optical and practiced there. He was vicar general of Hengshui and was appointed by Pope John Paul II Coadjutor Bishop Pietro Fan WENXING 1996. He was the successor of Pietro Fan WENXING a bishop of Hengshui 1999.

After cerebral hemorrhage in 2002, he was until his death in a coma. Since early 2004, Pietro Feng Xinmao led the diocese as coadjutor.