The cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, inaugurated on November 5 at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome the congress “The Face of the Universal Church in China,” organized by the Fides agency on the centenary of the consecration of the first six Chinese bishops by Pius XI in 1926. Among the speakers were the bishop of Beijing, Joseph Li Shan, who presides over the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, and the bishop of Haimen, Ignatius Ding Zuyao, consecrated on October 15. Leo XIV sent a video message, according to Vatican News reports.
Parolin: the protagonists are the Chinese Catholics
In his address, Parolin maintained that “the central theme is the Chinese Catholics, especially their bishops,” and according to the text released by Fides defined the communion between the Pope and the Chinese bishops as the “fundamental guideline” of the Holy See’s action toward China. The cardinal reviewed the impetus of Pius XI and the 2018 provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops, and cited Francis’s words on the desire of Chinese Catholics to live their faith “in full communion with the universal Church.”
Cardinal Stephen Chow, Jesuit and archbishop of Hong Kong, spoke about inculturation and defended “identifying common ground to overcome differences.” Li Shan addressed the evangelization of Matteo Ricci, the Synod of Shanghai, and current moral challenges, while the Fides program placed Ding Zuyao’s intervention in the afternoon and the conclusions in the hands of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.
Two guests linked to official structures
Li Shan, archbishop of Beijing since 2007, was elected president of the Patriotic Association in August 2022, at the X National Congress of Catholicism in China held in Wuhan, and has been vice-president of the Chinese Bishops’ Conference since 2016. His biographical profile also notes that in 2018 he was part of the Committee on Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the XIII Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an organ of the regime’s political system. The Patriotic Association is under the control of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, and Benedict XVI had declared the principle of a Church independent of the Holy See incompatible with Catholic doctrine.
Ding Zuyao, 40 years old, is the nineteenth bishop ordained under the provisional agreement. He was consecrated in Nantong at the head of a diocese vacant since 2023, when the authorities transferred his predecessor, Joseph Shen Bin, to Shanghai. The Patriotic Association announced that he had been elected on May 14, and Leo XIV appointed him on August 24. Haimen holds strong symbolic value, because its first bishop, Simon Zhu Kaimin, was one of the six consecrated by Pius XI.
The faithful bishops who were not on the stage
According to the text of Parolin released by Fides, the speech does not mention the underground bishops or the martyrs. Their absence contrasts with the centenary being commemorated. Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-mei, bishop of Shanghai, spent thirty years in prison for refusing to renounce his fidelity to the Pope and died in the United States in 2000. His underground successor, Joseph Fan Zhongliang, was arrested in 1955, performed forced labor in Qinghai, and died in 2014. Shi Enxiang, bishop of Yixian, was arrested on Good Friday 2001 and died in custody at the age of 94 without his family knowing his whereabouts. A 2024 report by the Hudson Institute, signed by Nina Shea, states that Su Zhimin, bishop of Baoding, has been secretly detained since 1997.
The Agreement, whose text has never been published, was renewed in 2020, 2022, and 2024 and is valid until October 2028. InfoVaticana already reported that Gallagher acknowledges the flaws of the agreement with China and the elevation to the episcopate of leaders of the Council of Bishops, an organization the Vatican does not recognize.