Church in China

Rev Anthony Ji Weizhong, 51, took office today as head of a diocese with a new name and canonical boundaries, replacing lieu Fenyang, which had been established by Pius XII. Pope Francis approved the appointment on 28 October. Fujian is also in the news this week.

Ordained a priest in 1947, the Verbite clergyman passed away at almost 105 after a very long ministry that included 25 years in prison. For Bishop Lu Peisen of Yanzhou, “Fr Guo dedicated his entire life to writing a wonderful story of selflessness and love, using his life as a pen and time as ink.”

The series of conferences refocused on the council held in 1924 at the initiative of then Apostolic Delegate Card Celso Costantini, at Fu Jen Catholic University, which was established the following year as one of the fruits of that historic event for the Church in China. Even today in Taiwan the theme of inculturation and interfaith dialogue is freely pursued, moved for ecclesial and missionary purposes.

Originally from Shanghai, he passed away at the age of 91. He was imprisoned in the 1955 with other Catholics as well as five of his brothers. Their mother visited each in different prisons, bringing them support in the faith. Once he was freed, he resumed his novitiate with the Jesuits, and was ordained in 1994. Speaking to Mondo e Missione that year, he said: "There is joy and peace in my heart” because “I too know that I have done nothing against God or against my country”.

​From Mindong, Hong Kong and Taiwan to Milan’s Chinese community, various voices speak at a meeting sponsored by AsiaNews on the feast day of Saint Francis Xavier, grateful to the communities that have kept and passed on the faith amid many difficulties and new encounters, with questions about meaning in a changing world.

Yesterday Rome's Gregorian University hosted a conference on the great Jesuit missionary's legacy of ‘friendship, dialogue and peace’. Cardinal Parolin stressed the ‘continuity and specificity’ of the last three popes in the relationship between Beijing and Ricci. For Fr Lombardi, he embodied the model of inculturation. The mission is a grain sown in an endless field.

Archbishop Li Shan led the ceremony in the Cathedral of the Saviour. Pope Francis approved the appointment on 28 August. The new prelate chose as his motto “All this I do for the sake of the gospel”. No official reason was given for the appointment of a prelate with the right of succession to the current pastor of the diocese of Beijing who is only 59 years old.

Th, Fr Gianni Criveller, editorial director of AsiaNews, made the comment following the renewal of the Agreement between the Vatican and Beijing on episcopal appointments. Given the lowkey with which the renewal was announced suggests awareness that background problems remain serious. “After the 2023 crisis, China avoided taking things too far,” and today the climate seems to have improved; hence, “giving up on the narrow path of dialogue and scrapping the agreement would not bring any advantage.”

The agreement has been officially extended until October 2028, ten years since the first signing. The duration is extended but the text remains provisional and secret, while a third of China’s dioceses are still vacant. As AsiaNews reported, the ordination of a coadjutor bishop for the diocese of Beijing is set for 25 October.

Set for Friday, 25 October, the ordination in the Chinese capital becomes the first appointment (in agreement with Rome) after the renewal of the Agreement on episcopal appointments, expected in the coming days. The new prelate is 54 years old, just five years younger than Archbishop Li Shan, who has led the Church in Beijing since 2007. As a seminarian, Zhen Xuebin trained at St. John's University in the United States, where he studied Vatican II.

On 1 October, China’s foremost patriotic observance, the Diocese of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia also marked the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Scheut missionaries in the area. Beyond any anti-imperialist rhetoric, a Church that loved China and its people goes way back before 1949.

The list of participants in the second session of the Synod, released today by the Vatican, includes Bishop Vincenzo Zhan Silu, one of the bishops whose excommunication was lifted in 2018. He will work alongside Archbishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang, who already participated in the first session last year. His diocese in Fujian saw the painful resignation of "underground" Bishop Guo Xijin.