Milan (AsiaNews) – The Chinese edition of Vatican News yesterday reported the death of Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, remembering him as someone who “never let himself be discouraged”; who made every effort “to promote evangelisation, train priests, and care for disabled children, always maintaining communion with the pope.”
On 28 October, AsiaNews had already reported the death at the 90-year-old underground bishop of Zhengding.
The brief article by Vatican News notes that Bishop Peter Fan Xueyan of Baoding ordained Julius Jia Zhiguo as a priest on 7 June 1980 after “a long and difficult period of preparation”. A few months later, he secretly consecrated the new priest as the bishop of the neighbouring Diocese of Zhengding in Hebei, home to one of China’s most important Christian communities.
"During a difficult and complex period," the Holy See's news portal reports, "Bishop Jia carried out his pastoral ministry while facing tense relations with civil authorities, which at times led to serious limitations on his personal freedom. Despite everything, he never allowed himself to be discouraged.”
In its brief statement, Vatican News explains that the current Diocese of Zhengding (not recognised as such by the Chinese government) “has approximately 130,000 members, numerous priests in its service, and several diocesan religious communities.”
Meanwhile, sources in Henan province told AsiaNews that local authorities attempted to discourage the faithful from attending Bishop Jia’s funeral, which was held last Friday in Jinzhou.
The elderly prelate's death also raises the issue of the high number of vacant episcopal sees in China, which risks sowing further confusion.
On 1 November, the day after the funeral, Fr Paul Dong Guanhua, an underground priest at odds with Rome, issued a message proclaiming himself the new ordinary bishop of Zhengding. In 2016, Fr Dong had announced his own episcopal ordination without a papal mandate, a baseless claim since Bishop Jia Zhiguo nine years ago declared this ordination as illegitimate.
“Since Dong Guanhua was ordained bishop privately and inaugurated as bishop on Sept. 11, 2016, Dong and his ordainer have violated Canon 1382 of the Canon Law, and are subject to latae sententiae (automatic excommunication),” Bishop Jia wrote at the time, further proof of this great bishop’s deep loyalty to the pope.
