ordained bishops and vacant dioceses

Milan () – This past week Pope Francis spoke again about the Provisional Agreement between China and the Holy See on the appointment of bishops, whose two-year deadline is near. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, the pontiff said: “Progress is slow, but (the bishops, ndr.) have already been appointed. It goes slowly, as I say, ‘a la china’, because the Chinese have that sense of time that nobody rushes them”. “They also have problems -added Francesco- because it is not the same situation in all the regions of the country: also it depends on the rulers, who are not all the same. But the agreement is fine and I hope it can be renewed in October.”

It is not the first time that Pope Francis has spoken about the Sino-Vatican Agreement in an interview. On September 1, 2021, in statements to the Spanish radio COPE, to a question on this subject, he replied: “It is not easy to deal with China, but I am convinced that we should not give up dialogue… In dialogue, one they can deceive, they can make mistakes, but we have to continue advancing on that path.” On April 11, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was the one who declared in an interview with ACI press that “he hoped” that, on the occasion of the renewal, it would somehow be possible “to make clarifications or revise some points” of the Agreement, the text of which remains secret.

In light of these statements, it is worth drawing an overview of the situation of bishop appointments in China since this agreement came into force on October 22, 2018. According to the name, the Agreement deals with the appointment of bishops and it is said that it leaves the Holy Father with the final word of confirmation on the only candidate put forward by the Chinese authorities (the Chinese side never mentions the “nomination”). Since the content of the Agreement is kept secret, the local civil and ecclesiastical authorities continue to behave as before.

Although the Agreement deals with episcopal appointments, in these almost four years there have only been six episcopal ordinations, despite the fact that the vacant sees – as we will see below – are close to forty. However, of the six episcopal ordinations, the first two did not follow the procedure of the Agreement. Bishop Yao Shun, Bishop of Jining, ordained on August 16, 2019, had been approved by the Holy See in 2010. Bishop Xu Hongwei, Bishop of Hanzhong, ordained the following August 28, had been approved by Rome in 2016 .

The first two ordinations of bishops appointed according to the procedure of the Agreement, always with a single candidate, were held in the winter of 2020, that is, only after the first renewal, which took place in October 2020. It is Mons. Bishop Chen Tianhao of Qingdao on November 23, 2020 and Bishop Liu Genzhu of Linfen/Hongdong on December 22.

Then followed the episcopal ordinations of Bishop Li Hui of Pingliang, on July 28, 2021, and Bishop Cui Qingqi of Wuhan-Hankou on September 8, 2021. Almost a year has therefore passed since the last appointment. .

The new climate has also favored other types of contacts and cooperation between the Vatican and China, such as six official inaugurations of a diocese. Also the installation of three unofficial bishops who became official, that is, Msgr. Peter Jin Lugang, bishop of Nanyang (on January 30, 2019, who, however, had been negotiating for years how to become official without adhering to the Principles of the Patriotic Association), Bishop Peter Lin Jiashan Bishop of Fuzhou (June 9, 2020) and Bishop Paul Ma Cunguo Bishop of Shuozhou (July 9, 2020).

The other three installations were made by already official bishops and members of the Episcopal Conference and the Patriotic Association – the “official” bodies controlled by Beijing – who for various reasons had not yet officially taken possession of the diocese as ordinary diocesan bishops: they are Msgr. Stefano Xu Hongwei Bishop of Hanzhong on January 18, 2020 (after the elder Msgr. Luigi Yu Runshen retired), Msgr. Pietro Li Huiyuan, Bishop of Fenxiang, June 22, 2020 (the year was made official under some pressure) and Msgr. Jin Yangke, Bishop of Ningbo on August 18, 2020, who had been secretly ordained bishop in 2012, without following the official procedure, by the elderly Bishop Hu Xiande.

In four years, therefore, six ordained bishops and six inaugurations of other bishops. But how many dioceses are left vacant in China? To calculate the number, it must be taken into account that the jurisdictions of the Catholic hierarchy prior to the advent of Mao’s China do not correspond to those imposed by the Beijing government on the “official” Catholic community.

According to the data of the Catholic Church in China, there are 147 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, that is, 20 archdioceses, 96 dioceses (including Macao, Hong Kong, Baotou and Bameng), 29 apostolic prefectures and 2 ecclesiastical administrations (Harbin and Hulubei’er). Officially according to the Chinese authorities, who have incorporated several dioceses but intend to establish new ones, there are 104 dioceses in China (excluding Macau and Hong Kong), redesigned along the lines of civil administration. Seven of these dioceses (Hainan in the province of the same name, Shaoguan in Guangdong, Xinyang in Henan, Jincheng and Xinzhou in Shanxi, Lishui in Zhejiang and Kangding in Sichuan) have already been placed under the administration of other dioceses by the Beijing authorities. , so the total number would be reduced to 97

Even assuming that this new ecclesial geography is taken as a point of reference for the Church in China today, there are currently 36 vacant sees (to which the 7 incorporated ones should be added). This means that more than a third of Catholic communities remain without a bishop four years after the Agreement entered into force. This is the detailed list of the “official” vacant dioceses:

Tianjin in the Tianjin Municipality;

Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Zhangjakou in Hebei province;

Jilin in Jilin province;

Jinzhong-Yuci, Yuncheng and Datong in Shanxi province;

Baotou and Chifeng in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region;

Tianshui in Gansu province;

Xining in Qinghai province;

Xinjiang in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region;

Chongqing in Chongqing Municipality;

The Diocese of the Tibet Autonomous Region;

Dali and Zhaotong in Guizhou province;

Jiangxi in Jiangxi province;

Puqi, Yichang, Jingzhou and Xiangfan in Hebei province;

Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, Shangqiu, Luoyang, Zhumadian and Xinxiang in Henan province;

Shanghai in the municipality of Shanghai;

Qingzhou, Yantai and Heze in Shandong province;

Hangzhou, Taizhou, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang province;

Minbei in Fujian province.