William Finnemann

Born in Büninghausen, Soest, North Rhine-Westphalia in the German Empire, Finnemann was the second oldest of fourteen children. He learned shoemaking from his uncle to help with the family expenses. The pastor of the Hultrop, Dr. Bernhard Köper, invited him to study in a Latin school, where he proved a good student.[1]

Young Finnemann wrote to various missionary religious orders asking to be admitted. Arnold Janssen, founder of the Society of the Divine Word, accepted. With his parents' permission and a letter of recommendation from Köper, Finnemann entered the seminary in April 1900. Köper had also generously offered to cover the cost. Finnemann was ordained as priest on October 1, 1911.[2]

He was assigned to Abra, a province in the northern Philippines. For five years, he set about establishing parishes, building schools and handling pastoral care. He became a naturalized Filipino. With the outbreak of World War I, he was taken into protective custody by the Americans and brought to the USA, winding up at the Society's St. Mary's Mission Seminary in Techny, Illinois where he remained for some years.[3] He later returned and in 1926 established Espiritu Santo Parish in Manila.

In 1929 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Manila, and served as chairman of the first National Eucharistic Congress. In 1936, he was named prefect apostolic of Mindoro, [4] and returned home to Hultrop for a brief visit.[1]

During the Japanese occupation of World War II, Bishop Finnemann publicly denounced the arbitrary acts of Japanese soldiers against the civilian population and vigorously resisted the occupation of church property. He refused to allow women and girls to be abused by Japanese soldiers. Finnemann was frequently arrested and subjected to beatings. He resisted plans to escape saying that a shepherd cannot abandon his flock.[1]

On October 26, 1942, he was taken aboard a military boat on the pretext of being transferred to Manila for a court martial. The bishop was aware he was unlikely to survive. Once out in the deep waters between Calapan and Batangas, he was bound and thrown overboard because he refused to turn over to the Japanese army a convent of the Holy Spirit Sisters for use for as a brothel.[5]

Finnemann is currently in consideration for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church with protocol number 2290 assigned by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On December 7, 1999, he was declared Servant of God.[6]

• Bishop Finnemann's life in German
• Divine Word Seminary