William (Wilhelm) Finnemann (December 18, 1882 – October 26, 1942) was a priest of the

Society of the Divine Word The Society of the Divine Word ( la, Societas Verbi Divini), abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic Church, Catholic clerical religious congregation ...

, auxiliary bishop of

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

and

apostolic vicar Apostolic may refer to: The Apostles An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission: *The Twelve Apostles of Jesus, or something related to them, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles *Apostolic succession, the doctrine connecting the Christian Churc ...

Calapan Calapan, officially the City of Calapan ( fil, Lungsod ng Calapan), is a 3rd class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. Accor ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. He was martyred by the Japanese through being thrown into the sea near

Verde Island Verde Island is a volcanic island situated along the bodies of Isla Verde Passage, Verde Island Passage between the islands of Luzon and Mindoro, Philippines. It was in 1988 when a small village was connected to mains electricity through the eff ...

off the coast of

Batangas City Batangas City, officially the City of Batangas ( fil, Lungsod ng Batangas), is a 1st class component city and capital of the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 351,437 people. Batangas City i ...

Batangas Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( tl, Lalawigan ng Batangas ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region on Luzon. Its capital is the city of Batangas, and is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and La ...

Early life

Born in Büninghausen, Soest,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

in the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

, to Bernhard and Elizabeth Nasse. Finnemann was the second oldest of fourteen children. He learned shoemaking from his uncle to help with the family expenses."W. Finnemann - Hultrops größter Sohn", Festschrift der St.- Sebastian-Bruderschaft, ''Soester Anzeiger'', 20 July 1985
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Education

The pastor of the Hultrop, Dr. Bernhard Köper, invited him to study in a Latin Catholic public school, where he proved a good student. Young Finnemann wrote to various missionary religious orders asking to be admitted.

Arnold Janssen Arnold Janssen, S.V.D. (5 November 1837 – 15 January 1909), was a German-Dutch Catholic priest and missionary who is venerated as a saint. He founded the Society of the Divine Word, a Catholic missionary religious congregation, also known as th ...

, founder of the

, 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."The fight of Bishop William Finneman, SVD", ''The Manila Times'', August 5, 2012
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Priesthood

In 1912, Finnemann came to the Philippines. 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, in 1918 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 Techny is a neighborhood of Northbrook, Illinois, United States. Once a separate community, it was annexed by Northbrook in 1989. The North American headquarters of the Divine Word Missionaries has been located in Techny since 1896. The area's n ...

where he remained for some years. He was made professor of Latin and Greek from 1920-1922. He later returned to Abra and from 1923-1926 he was made Procurator of the Society of the Divine Word in the Philippine Islands. In 1926, he became the parish priest of the new Espiritu Santo Parish (a.k.a. Holy Ghost Church, Holy Spirit Church, and later Archdiocesan Shrine of Espiritu Santo) which was put under the administration of his order.

Bishop

In 1929, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Manila, and served as chairman of the first National Eucharistic Congress. Finnemann also became Vicar General of the Curia Eclesiastica and Administrator of '' Obras Pias'' at the Archbishop's Palace. In 1936, he was named prefect apostolic of Mindoro (now Apostolic Vicariate of Calapan), and returned home to Hultrop for a brief visit. 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. 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.

Cause of beatification and canonization

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 In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...

. On December 7, 1999, he was declared

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

."3 Bishops meet on Finnemann beatification", SVD, Philippine Central Province
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Legacy

The

Knights of Columbus The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. It is led by Patrick E. Kelly, the order's 14th Supreme Knight. ...

dedicated a park to Finnemann named ''Bishop William J. Finnemann, SVD Memorial Plaza'' on 12 Quezon Dr, Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines.

References

External links

Bishop Finnemann's life in German

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finnemann, William 1882 births 1942 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Deaths by drowning Divine Word Missionaries Order People executed by drowning People murdered in the Philippines 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Philippines Filipino Servants of God German emigrants to the Philippines Clergy from North Rhine-Westphalia 20th-century German Roman Catholic priests