Why a Bishop in Taiwan Resigned Only Six Months After Installation

“May the Lord bless you. May He carry you through the pandemic, give salvation to the dead, health to the sick, work for everyone,” he said.

“I also pray for priests who are victims of pressure,” added the bishop, as he urged the faithful to have “the courage to face, with the commitment of all,” the challenges of evangelization.

Bishop Lee was born on Nov. 2, 1966, in Tainan city, Taiwan, to parents who arrived as refugees from mainland China. 

One of nine siblings, he was given up for adoption. The first family that adopted him had financial problems, and he was then adopted a second time by a family that raised him as a Catholic.

He attended a Salesian school in Tainan and entered the minor seminary at the age of 12. He studied philosophy and theology at St. Pius X Seminary in Tainan.

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He was ordained priest on Jan. 1, 1993, and was assigned as assistant pastor at the cathedral parish. He later became parish priest of the Holy Name of Jesus parish until 1999.

He earned a licentiate degree in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. He was president of the Commission for the Promotion of Vocations, and later became chancellor of the diocese in 2017, and then its vicar general in 2019.

Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Tainan on Nov. 14, 2020, and he was consecrated bishop on January 1, 2021. 

The Diocese of Tainan has a population of about two million people, 7,500 of whom are Catholics. The pope has appointed Bishop Bosco Lin Chi-nan, bishop emeritus of Tainan, as apostolic administrator of the diocese.