Sources told AsiaNews that local priests were summoned yesterday to ratify the choice of Fr Wu Jianlin, vicar general, a loyal Party member. Another election was held in the Diocese of Xinxiang, in Henan, whose underground bishop has been arrested several times. During the sede vacante period, Beijing is reiterating the autonomy of the Church in China to test Francis’s successor over the agreement.

 

Shanghai (AsiaNews) – While the Catholic Church around the world mourns Pope Francis and looks to the cardinals who have arrived in Rome for the conclave that will elect the new pontiff, the bodies of the official Catholic Church in China are promoting the idea that everything must go on as if nothing had happened.

Sources told AsiaNews that in Shanghai priests were summoned to ratify the choice of a new auxiliary bishop, which happened yesterday. Fr Wu Jianlin, the current vicar general, was picked with only a handful of votes against. The same thing happened today in the Diocese of Xinxiang (Henan province) with only one candidate, Fr Li Janlin.

The method is the usual one, despite the agreement with the Holy See on episcopal appointments agreed by Pope Francis.

In the name of the "autonomy" of the Church in China, a point the authorities insist on, the Vatican is presented with a single candidate, chosen by assemblies of clergy ruled by agencies controlled by the Communist Party of China (CPC), with the pontiff with the reserve power to approve or not.

It must also be said that the latest two elections had probably been scheduled before the death of Pope Francis. But it is significant that those responsible for China’s religious policy decided to go ahead anyway, a way of saying that the exceptional moment in the history of the universal Church, with sede vacante, does not concern Catholics in the People's Republic.

This is that more significant since the two appointments in question are particularly tricky. Like in Beijing a few months ago, Bishop Shen Bin of Shanghai, who was chosen by the CPC to lead the local Catholic community, now wants an auxiliary to support him in his pastoral ministry which also includes the office of president of the Council of Chinese Bishops, the collegial body not recognised by the Holy See.

The problem is that the Diocese of Shanghai already has two auxiliary bishops, Joseph Xing Wenzhi, 62, who was ordained in 2005 but was disgraced in 2011, and, above all, Thaddeus Ma Daqin, 57, the bishop who on 7 July 2012 took the unprecedented step of resigning from the Patriotic Association during his episcopal ordination, a gesture by virtue of which he now lives segregated in the seminary of Sheshan.

When in July 2023 - three months after Beijing’s move - Pope Francis endorsed a posteriori "for the good of the diocese” Shen Bin’s appointment in Shanghai, some expressed hope that Ma Daqin would be able to exercise his ministry, at least as auxiliary bishop, especially since he had made public amends for his gesture in 2016.

The election of Fr Wu Jianlin clearly shows that Beijing has no intention of allowing that. And the profile of the new auxiliary bishop is very clear: he is a "patriotic" priest who de facto led the Diocese of Shanghai from 2013 to 2023, and has been a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for years.

No less sticky for the Holy See is the other election, that of the new bishop of Xinxiang. In fact, this is another diocese in Henan, vacant for the authorities, but with an underground bishop, 67-year-old Joseph Zhang Weizhu, who was secretly ordained in 1991 and arrested several times in recent years for the simple fact of carrying out his ministry.

In this case too, the only candidate for the episcopate is a party loyalist. In 2018, Fr Li Jianlin was one of those who sign a circular banning minors from attending Mass in Henan province.

It seems clear that these two elections represent a test by Chinese authorities for the successor of Peter who will be elected in the conclave that will open on 7 May.

The new pontiff will have to decide what to do not only in general about relations with China, but also with these two specific events.

This comes after no bishop from the People's Republic of China came to the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis, unlike what happened for the synod.

Meanwhile, the brief, terse statement of condolence posted by the Patriotic Association on its homepage for the death of Pope Francis was removed after four days, replaced by seemingly more urgent news, like the meeting in Anhui province between Catholics and the Party Committee and the presentation of the five-year plan for the sinicisation of Catholicism in Hubei province.

This kind of behaviour seems almost a response to the courage with which - as reported a few days ago - many Chinese Catholics (and even some bishops) shared images of Pope Francis on the occasion of his death on their personal social media profiles.

In the Diocese of Wenzhou (Zhejiang province), the crackdown continues. Before, Easter, we reported the now regular arrest of Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin, which was extended following the pope’s death, according to the latest reports to AsiaNews from local sources.

Nothing is known about the prelate’s fate after he was arrested on 10 April to prevent him from publicly celebrating Holy Week rites.

In Wenzhou, police prevented even "officially registered" priests from celebrating Mass in memory of Pope Francis.

• china
• vatican
• sede vacante
• sinicisation
• episcopal appointments
• pope francis
• death
• underground church
• official