Pope reorders dioceses and appoints new bishop in China

Chinese authorities have long pursued changes to diocesan boundaries to correspond to the administrative boundaries of local government.

Pope Leo appointed a bishop to a new diocese in China, suppressing two existing dioceses in the process.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Vatican announced the episcopal ordination of Fr Joseph Wang Zhengui as Bishop of Zhangjiakou that day. It said Leo had “approved the candidacy in the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China”.

It also announced the suppression of the dioceses of Xuanhua and Xiwanzi and the erection of the Diocese of Zhangjiakou “to promote the pastoral care of the Lord’s flock and to attend more effectively to its spiritual good”.

Both decisions date from 8 July, according to the statement, with the announcement postponed to coincide with Bishop Wang’s consecration.

The new diocese covers most of its predecessors’ combined territory, with some areas incorporated into the Archdiocese of Beijing and the Diocese of Jining, such that “the territory of the Diocese of Zhangjiakou conforms to that of the principal city of Zhangjiakou” in north-western Hebei province.

Chinese authorities have long pursued changes to diocesan boundaries, most of which pre-date the proclamation of the People’s Republic in 1949, to correspond to the administrative boundaries of local government.

The state-backed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) operates through a number of dioceses without canonical status, such as the Diocese of Jiangxi.

According to reports, now-Bishop Wang has already acted as administrator to a state-approved diocese in Zhangjiakou for several years, even organising priestly ordinations there in 2021.

The Archbishop of Beijing Joseph Li Shan, the chair of the CCPA, presided at his episcopal ordination alongside five other bishops in the Church of the Holy Family in Zhangjiakou on Wednesday.

Invitations to clergy to attend the service reportedly included an announcement of a retirement ceremony for the Bishop of Xuanhua Augustine Cui Tai on 12 September and of the installation the same day of the Bishop of Xiwanzi Joseph Ma Yanen as an auxiliary in the Diocese of Zhangjiakou.

Bishop Cui Tai succeeded to Xuanhua as coadjutor in 2018 but refused to join the CCPA, meaning the authorities refused to recognise him. Now aged 75 – when bishops must submit their resignation – he has repeatedly been detained for long periods since 2007.

This week’s ceremonies followed the death on 6 September of the 91-year-old Bishop Placidus Pei Ronggui OCSO, a former coadjutor of the Diocese of Luoyang who retired to his native Hebei in 2011 and remained a prominent figure in the “underground” Church there.

After joining the Trappist order, he was ordained a priest in 1981 and later imprisoned for four years after refusing to join the CCPA. In 2016 he told Reuters it was “the opposite of the principles of the Catholic Church”.

Last week Pope Leo met the Bishop of Hong Kong Cardinal Stephen Chow SJ, who reported the Pope was “not entirely unaware of the Church in China”.

Following his audience with the Pope on 2 September, Cardinal Chow said told his diocese’s Sunday Examiner had “helped [Pope Leo] gain a fuller picture and a better understanding of the current state of China-Vatican relations”.

He said Leo “recognises the importance of dialogue between the Church and the mainland authorities, and considers respectful communication as the priority in addressing challenges in China-Vatican relations”.

The enduring church – Catholicism in China

View from Rome

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: