Buch, Englisch, Band 122, 284 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 235 mm
Reihe: Studia Instituti Missiologici Societatis Verbi Divini
Bishop Yang Libo (1919–1998) and the Catholic Church in Gansu
Buch, Englisch, Band 122, 284 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 235 mm
Reihe: Studia Instituti Missiologici Societatis Verbi Divini
ISBN: 978-3-87710-561-0
Verlag: Verlag Franz Schmitt
Chinese Catholic priests, sisters, and lay persons imprisoned after 1949 have produced a number of memoirs and autobiographical accounts in which they reflected on their experiences in prisons and labor camps. Some of them have been published in English in recent years, many other materials have been divulged in an unofficial way in China or abroad.
Among these documents the memoirs written by Yang Libo (1919–1998), bishop of the archdiocese of Lanzhou, occupy a special position, since they refer to the developments of the local church of Gansu (China) from the 1940s to the 1980s. Bishop Yang’s memoirs are written from the perspective of a priest, and he paid special attention to the matters concerning the diocese and the fate of the other priests and religious brothers.
In a special way, Bishop Yang’s memoirs also show his own spiritual journey from the years at the minor seminary in dire poverty through his uplift by the solemn priestly ordination in Lanzhou in 1949, his pastoral work and his long years of lonely confinement and suffering in different labor camps. Like many other Catholics and priests from Gansu he loyally kept the faith and was ready to suffer for it, and after his release his only concern was not personal well-being but the needs of the Catholics in his diocese.
This book contextualizes the life story of Bp. Yang by looking back at the beginnings of Catholicism in Gansu, starting with the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century. It contains short biographical notes on missionaries of different congregations who worked in Gansu.
Tobias Weig (pseudonym) lives in Beijing since 1996, working as teacher, translator, and historian. He has produced several studies on the history of Christianity in China.
