The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kunming (Latin: Archidioecesis Coenmimensis; Chinese: 天主教昆明總教區) is an archdiocese located in the city of Kunming, provincial capital of Yunnan, southwestern China.
Overview
The Archdiocese has not had a legitimate, Vatican-appointed archbishop since 1952, when French Archbishop Alexandre Derouineau [zh] was expelled from China in the aftermath of the Chinese Communist Revolution.[1]
The government of the People's Republic of China installed Father Kong Lingzhong as archbishop in 1962 and Father Joseph Ma Yinglin as archbishop in 2006.[1] Neither government appointment is considered legitimate by the Vatican since they were not appointed by the papacy.[1]
The first Catholics in Yunnan were refugees fleeing from the Massacre of Sichuan [zh] (Szechwan) perpetrated by Zhang Xianzhong in the 1640s. In 1658, a significant number of Catholics retreated to Kunming with the Yongli Emperor, whose family and court were converted to Catholicism by the German Jesuit Andreas Xavier Koffler. After the emperor's death, most of the Catholics settled in Kunming.[2]
Archdiocese website (Chinese) Archived 2008-05-12 at the Wayback Machine
References
^ a b c d"'Underground' administrator dies". Union of Catholic Asian News. February 7, 2012. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
^"明清時代的珠江文化——第四節 明清珠江流域的宗教文化(2)" [Culture along the Pearl River during the Ming and Qing era: Its Religious Culture (part 2)]. hk.crntt.com (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved November 7, 2023.