VATICAN-CHINA The bishop of Mindong is one of the new synod fathers appointed by Francis

One of the few new additions to the list of participants in the second session of the Synod – released today by the Vatican – is the name of Msgr. Vincenzo Zhan Silu, one of the Chinese bishops whose excommunication was lifted in 2018. Representing the bishops of mainland China, he will join Msgr. Joseph Yang Yongqiang, who already participated last year. In his diocese of Fujian, the painful resignation of the “underground” bishop Msgr. Guo Xijin was witnessed.

Vatican City () – Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang, who took part in the first session last year and was then transferred by agreement of the Holy See to the diocese of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, and Bishop Vincenzo Zhan Silu of Mindong in Fujian province, are the two bishops from the People’s Republic of China who will take part in the second session of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will take place in the Vatican from 2 to 27 October.

Their names are included in the list of 368 pontifically appointed members of the Synod, which was announced today at the press conference held in the Holy See Press Office to present the event. Card. Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg and General Rapporteur of the Synod, explained that almost all the bishops are the same as those who participated in the first session in October 2023. There are only 26 changes – the cardinal specified – and they are related to replacements due to impediments that have arisen. One of these cases is Bishop Zhan Silu, who was appointed by Pope Francis in place of Msgr. Anthony Yao Shun, Bishop of Jining, who was present last year. To a specific question about the reasons for this substitution and the duration of the presence of the two Chinese bishops (who left the Synod before the end of the work in October 2023), Card. Grech, the Synod’s secretary general, said: “The Secretariat of State has communicated the names to us, but we have no further information on this matter.”

Everything suggests, therefore, that the decision to appoint Bishop Zhan Silu instead of Bishop Yao Shun was taken by the official bodies of the Chinese Catholic community, controlled by the authorities in Beijing. It should also be remembered that the 63-year-old bishop of Mindong is one of the eight illicitly ordained prelates whose excommunication was revoked by Pope Francis in 2018 on the occasion of the signing of the provisional agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China on the appointment of bishops. The bishop had been ordered on 6 January 2000 without a mandate from the Pope in a ceremony held in Beijing. It should be added that the Synod on young people held in the Vatican in 2018 had already been attended by Bishop Giuseppe Guo Jincai, from the diocese of Chengde, another of the bishops whose excommunication the Pope had lifted a few weeks earlier.

In relation to Msgr. Zhan Silu, it is also important to remember that in Fujian Province – one of the areas where the Catholic presence in China is historically strongest – the implementation of the Interim Agreement was not painless for the local “underground” community. Mindong is indeed the diocese where in October 2020 Msgr. Vincenzo Guo Xijin – the “underground” bishop who, according to the intentions of the Holy See, should have accompanied Msgr. Zhan Silu as auxiliary bishop (in the photo above the two appear together at the Chrism Mass celebrated in 2019) – resigned after only two years because he did not share the pressure on the clergy who (like himself) did not agree to register with the official bodies controlled by the party. Bishop Guo Xijin, now 66, has retired to a life of prayer, and in an open letter described himself as “clumsy” and “stupid,” unable to adapt to the times and the style “of the Church in China and particularly in our diocese.”

As for the working days of the Synodal Assembly, as was the case last year, they will be preceded by a spiritual retreat to be held in the Vatican on 30 September and 1 October, and will conclude with a penitential vigil presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica. During the celebration, the testimony of three people who have suffered the sin of abuse, the sin of war and the sin of indifference to the tragedies linked to migration will be heard. This will be followed by a request for forgiveness pronounced by the Pope for certain sins, including – in addition to those mentioned above – those related to the lack of listening, communion and participation in the life of the Church.