Fuzhou: the new bishop Cai Bingrui and the Fujian frontier
In agreement with the Holy See, the current bishop of Xiamen took office today in one of the most historically important sees of the Church in China. The province is right across from Taiwan in a politically very sensitive context. For him, the challenge of reaching out to underground communities, while reiterating cumbersome slogans about “patriotism”.
Milan (AsiaNews) – As anticipated a few days ago, after the ordination on Monday of the new bishop of Lüliang (Shanxi), today came confirmation of a second important appointment in the Church in China. The new bishop of the Diocese of Fuhzou, the capital of the province of Fujian, took possession of his see this morning.
Rev Joseph Cai Bingrui, 58, served as bishop of Xiamen since 2007, another see in the same province. Thus, the Holy See did not announce a new episcopal appointment per se, but a transfer approved by Pope Francis under the Provisional Agreement on episcopal bishops between the Vatican and Beijing.
After training at the Sheshan seminary in Shanghai, he became a priest in 1992, and soon after diocesan administrator in Xiamen, a diocese where the bishop illegitimately ordained by Beijing (Joseph Huang Ziyu) had died and two young priests remained.
The episcopal ordination took place in 2010 with Vatican consent in accordance with the practice that existed prior to the 2018 Agreement. Now, "having approved his candidacy" - reads the statement issued by Holy See Press Office, the pontiff appointed him bishop of Fuzhou on 15 January "transferring him from the diocese of Xiamen".
In the capital of Fujian, he replaces Archbishop Peter Lin Jashan, a member of the underground Church who was officially recognised by Beijing in 2020 under the Agreement, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 88.
It should be noted that the Vatican note defines the new pastor as a "bishop" and Fuzhou as a "diocese," confirming the ecclesiastical geography imposed by Chinese authorities, who do not include metropolitanates.
Bishop’s Cai appointment is a major development for the Church in China, since the diocese has more than 300,000 members, according to the most recent estimates. The local context is complex since underground communities, historically significant in Fujian, were divided even before Bishop Lin Jasha’s official recognition into two different groups, one of which followed another clandestine diocesan administrator, Mgr Joseph Lin Yuantuan.
Fuzhou is a fundamental place in the history of evangelisation in China. It was here, in 1624, that Giulio Aleni (1582-1649), a Jesuit, mathematician and a disciple of Matteo Ricci, pioneered outreach to Chinese culture in the late Ming dynasty.
His ten years of exchanges in Fuzhou with a group of Confucian scholars who had converted to Christianity were later collected in the Kuoduo richao (Diary of Oral Admonitions), representing a unique window into early Chinese Christianity, as well as noting the questions that the proclamation of the Gospel aroused on the part of those who approached it.
Fuzhou was also the scene of the first martyrdom of Christians under the Qing dynasty. It was in this city that Bishop Pedro Sans i Jordà, a Dominican and apostolic vicar to Fujian, was beheaded in 1747.
The first six of the 120 Chinese martyrs proclaimed saints by Pope John Paul II on 1 October 2000, killed before the 19th century, were Dominican missionaries who spilled their blood to proclaim the Gospel in this Chinese province. China’s Communist Party called the event a “provocation”.
Fujian is also a particularly important in today's China, as one of the country’s most economically dynamic areas (indeed the world’s) as well as a particularly sensitive region from a political point of view (It is from here that Xi Jinping began his rise to the top of the Chinese Communist Party).
Above all, it is close to Taiwan, which at its closest point is just 120 kilometres across the sea. Interestingly, Bishop Cai was ordained bishop of Xiamen in 2010 in a ceremony led by Bishop Zhan Silu of Mindong (at the time not yet in communion with Rome) in a ceremony attended by the Bishop Emeritus Joseph Cheng Tsai-fa of Taipei.
Speaking to AsiaNews about this, Bishop Cai said that his diocese had long received visits by Catholics from the neighbouring island of Taiwan and that he hoped to continue engaging in dialogue and exchanges with the Church on the other side of the Strait.
Now it will also be up to him to continue the journey of rebuilding his ecclesial community in Fuzhou.
After his appointment was announced, the elderly underground Bishop Joseph Lin Yuantuan released a note saying that the Holy See "hopes for its active collaboration in guiding the clergy, nuns and faithful of Fuzhou so that they are obedient and support Bishop Cai Bingrui”.
This is also a way of noting, notwithstanding appointments, that unity is a path still to be completed in Fujian, as clearly indicated in recent years in Mindong by the painful story of Bishop Guo Xijin.
In such a context, the “official” statement, China Catholic attributed to the new bishop of Fuzhou ought also to be read.
Introducing himself to the diocese today, Bishop Cai is said to have pledged to “always hold high the flag of patriotism and love for the Church, adhering to the principle of independence and self-management, towards the sinicisation of Catholicism in the country, uniting and guiding the priests and faithful of the Diocese of Fuzhou to adhere to a path compatible with socialist society.” Xi Jinping's inevitable watchwords in the Fujian frontier.
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08/09/2021 15:51
16/07/2020 13:26
