Henan gets a new bishop while churches remain off-limits to children
In the Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang, the episcopal ordination of Bishop Li Jainlin took place this morning, the second bishop elected during the recent sede vacante. The appointment was approved by Leo XIV in accordance with the Sino-Vatican accord, following the "resignation" of underground bishop Zhang Weizhu (who was arrested several times for refusing to join official bodies). Meanwhile, in Xuchang, the faithful found their church padlocked for allowing minors to enter it.
Milan (AsiaNews) – A new bishop was consecrated in Henan under the Agreement between the Holy See and the government of the People's Republic of China, quietly replacing his predecessor, an underground bishop who was arrested several times for refusing to submit to the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
This development coincides with the forced closure of a church in the same province, with a heavy padlock now barring its doors, all this for daring to violate the provision prohibiting anyone under 18 from attending services.
The new episcopal appointment in China was announced by the Holy See on the same day that the episcopal ordination ceremony took place in the historic church in Weihui, in northern Henan Province.
It must be seen against a complex background. Mgr Francis Li Jainlin is now the new bishop of the apostolic prefecture of Xinxiang, a region well known to PIME missionaries who ministered in Henan for more than 80 years, until their expulsion by Mao's regime in the early 1950s, a place where the seed of the Gospel has borne fruit, despite persecution.
With today's ordination, the second episcopal election undertaken in China during the sede vacante following the death of Pope Francis has been completed. As AsiaNews reported at the time, while churches around the world paused in prayer for the pontiff and awaited his successor, in China, Communist Party-controlled Church bodies insisted that everything proceed as planned.
Thus, on 29 April, the clergy in Xinxiang were convened to elect as bishop, Father Li Jianlin, a priest "loyal" to the official party line; while the day before, in Shanghai, Father Ignatius Wu Janlin was elected auxiliary bishop, later formally appointed by Leo XIV on 11 August and consecrated on 15 October.
According to today’s announcement by the Vatican Press Office, on 11 August, Pope Leo appointed the new Apostolic Prefect of Xinxiang, “having approved his candidature in accordance with the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, and having accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the same Apostolic Prefecture presented by Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu.”
This last reference is noteworthy. From the perspective of Canon Law, the Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang was not without a bishop. In fact, as early as 1991, when this Church in northern Henan was beginning to rebuild after the terrible years of the Cultural Revolution, a bishop had been designated in the person of a young priest, Father Zhang Weizhu, now 67.
His ordination had been approved by Rome, but not by Beijing, due to his refusal to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). To prevent Bishop Zhang Weizhu him from carrying out ministry, local authorities restricted his freedom on several occasions for considerable periods of time, while cracking down on his pastoral activities.
The most sensational action was a police raid in May 2021 that “dismantled” an “underground” seminary that the prelate had set up in Hebei for those who wanted to prepare for the priesthood without joining the official bodies controlled by the Communist Party of China.
Bishop Li Shan of Beijing, who chairs the CCPA and is deputy chairman of the Chinese Bishops' Council (the collegial body not officially recognised by the Holy See), led the ordination of Bishop Li Jianlin this morning in the church of Weihui.
The other bishops of Henan concelebrated: Bishop Wang Yuesheng of Zhengzhou, Bishop Zhang Yinlin of Anyang, and Bishop Jin Lugang of Nanyang.
The secretary, Father Yang Fu, read the letter of approval from the Chinese Bishops' Council, which – as always – makes no mention of the pope's assent, in accordance with the principle of the "autonomy" of the Church in China.
Furthermore, the report on the ordination carried by chinacatholic.cn, the website of the CCPA, makes no mention of Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu at all, nor (obviously) does the prelate appear in the photograph of the people who participated in the celebration, all gathered together in front of the church.
This is an eloquent sign of how Bishop Zhang’s “resignation”, made in obedience to the will of the Holy See, is being presented to the faithful of the Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang: no communion, only the proclamation of the Party's "victory" over the underground communities.
The new bishop, Mgr Li Jianlin, was born on 9 July 1975, in Huixian, Henan Province. He studied philosophy and theology at the Catholic Major Seminary of Hebei and was ordained a priest in 1999 by the then Bishop Nicholas Shi Jingxian of Shangqiu.
In December 2011, the CCPA appointed him deputy director and general secretary of the Committee for Catholic Ecclesiastical Affairs in Henan Province.
In this capacity, together with the current bishop of the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, Bishop Wang Yuesheng, he signed a circular in 2018 for Henan Province that, in the name of Party regulations on education, bans all minors under 18 from entering churches, one of the most blatant forms of denial of religious freedom in China today, as well as a very concrete way of hindering the transmission of the faith.
In Henan, this is far from a theoretical ban. Proof of this is what happened just a few days before the aforementioned ordination, in Xuchang, a city in the same province located about a hundred kilometres south of Weihui.
On 2 December, the faithful of a local Catholic community found the door of their church was padlocked, with an official note.
"It has been verified," it reads, "that on 30 November 2025, the Catholic Church on Hupin Road violated relevant regulations by allowing minors to enter the church and play musical instruments. This incident constitutes a violation of the requirements governing the management of places of worship. In accordance with the applicable guiding provisions, your church is therefore ordered to suspend its activities for full rectification.”
The note carries the seal of the CCPA and the Church Affairs Committee (the office headed by the newly elected Bishop Li Janlin). Even police intervention is no longer necessary, as clergymen directly ensure that children are not allowed in a church. This is the situation in which Catholics in Henan find themselves today.
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08/04/2010
10/02/2018 14:38
