Joseph Ma Yinglin (Chinese: 馬英林; born 1965) is the

Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association The Catholic Patriotic Association (), abbreviated CPA, is a state-sanctioned organization of Catholicism in the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1957 after a group of Chinese Catholics met in Beijing with officials from the C ...

-sponsored

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of the diocese of Kunming, China. He was consecrated a bishop on 30 April 2006, at age 41. The

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

had been vacant for 11 years. The ordination of Bishop Ma went ahead without the approval of the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

. For some years, there had been an informal arrangement whereby new bishops for Chinese Catholic dioceses sought approval from the Pope prior to ordination. This was broken with the ordination of Ma, who had been the secretary of the Council of Catholic Bishops (a sort of

episcopal conference An episcopal conference, sometimes called a conference of bishops, is an official assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities. The first assembly of bishops to ...

not recognized by the Holy See) and had held various offices in the

, a division of the Religious Affairs Bureau of the Chinese government and the organism that controls the Church, and whose statutes include the goal of creating a national Church detached from the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

. His ordination could, in the opinion of the highest ranking Chinese Catholic dignitary, Cardinal Joseph Zen Zi-kiun of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, damage Church-State relations. In a warning issued the day prior to the ordination Cardinal Zen stated that "to conduct the ordination without the Holy See's approval is to sabotage intentionally Sino-Vatican relations." On 4 May 2006, the Holy See's Press Office declared that Ma had been automatically excommunicated for being ordained without the pope's approval. On September 22, 2018

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

lifted the excommunication of Joseph Ma Yinglin and other six bishops previously appointed by the Chinese government without a pontifical mandate.press.vatican.va
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References

Living people 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in China 1965 births People temporarily excommunicated by the Catholic Church Bishops of the Catholic Patriotic Association {{bishop-stub

See also

References