The trial for Jimmy Lai, the Catholic Hong Kong activist and newspaper publisher, opened yesterday, launching what is expected to be a protracted legal exhibition capping several years of imprisonment for the embattled pro-democracy advocate. Lai became a Catholic in 1997 (baptized by Cardinal Joseph Zen), he said of his decision not to leave Hong Kong, “If I go away, I not only give up my destiny, I give up God, I give up my religion, I give up what I believe in.”