James Lin Xili

James Lin Xili David (林锡黎; * October 19, 1918 in Yueqing City, People's Republic of China, † October 4, 2009 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China ) was the Roman Catholic bishop of Wenzhou, a diocese of the Catholic underground Church in China. He spent 16 years because of his faith in Chinese prisons and labor camps.

Life

James Lin Xili was ordained in 1944 for the diocese Ningpo priest. He studied until 1948 at the Catholic Fu Jen University in Beijing. He has worked in Ningpo in pastoral work and was appointed in the 1950s during the construction of a communist state by Bishop André- Jean -François Defebvre CM Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Ningpo. In 1955 it was arrested for " counter-revolutionary crimes " and spent 16 years in prisons and as a shoemaker in forced labor camps. After his release in 1971 he took the pastoral ministry again, was able to use the administration in 1978 and helped in the restoration of old churches and the building of new churches.

In 1992, he received secret episcopal ordination. He was the first bishop of the company founded by the Roman Curia in 1949, Wenzhou diocese. The official Church of China and the government of China never accepted his appointment. In China, the Catholic Church is regulated state; the recognition of the Roman Catholic Church under papal authority is prohibited.

The diocese was developed under his leadership. 2009 scored his diocese over 100,000 believers. In 1998, he was able to avoid being arrested again, was arrested again in 1999 and was under police surveillance, and since 2003 until his death under house arrest; he died after ten years of Alzheimer 's disease. Reporting on the Internet has been denied by the Chinese government; a Catholic website with obituary and photos were closed.