The Catholic Church in China has as of today the first bishop of the new Diocese of Lüliang, the 11th prelate since the signing of the provisional agreement for the appointment of bishops, which was signed by the Vatican and the government of China in 2018, and which has It has already been renewed three times.
Bishop Antonio Ji Weizhong, 51, has been consecrated Bishop of Lüliang, a diocese established by Pope Francis in October 2024 as the suffragan (dependent) see of the Archdiocese of Taiyuan, in the province of Shanxi, in northern China. .
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The Vatican agency Fides reports that the episcopal consecration was celebrated at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Fenyang, currently part of the city-prefecture of Lüliang.
Principal consagrante ha sido Mons. Paul Meng Ningyou, Obispo de Taiyuan, y co-consagrantes han sido Mons. Peter Liu Genzhu, Obispo de Hongdong-Linfen; Mons. Paul Ma Cunguo, Obispo de Shuozhou; y Mons. Peter Ding Lingbin , Obispo de Changzhi.
The ordination Mass was attended by 130 priests from Shanxi province and other parts of China, along with nuns, seminarians and lay people, a total of 450 people.
Who is the new Bishop of Lüliang in China?
The new Bishop of Lüliang is Bishop Antonio Ji Weizhong, who was born on August 3, 1973. The prelate, Fides recalls, affirms that he grew up in the Catholic faith thanks to the daily witness of his mother.
He studied Theology at the National Seminary in Beijing from 1995 to 2001. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Fenyang on October 14, 2001. He studied languages at Xi’an University.
In February 2005 he moved to Germany to study at the Sankt Augustin University of Philosophy and Theology, run by the missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word (Verbitas)—a congregation to which the oldest priest in China belonged, who died a few days ago. at 104 years old–– studies that concluded in 2010.
The new Diocese of Lüliang has a total area of 21,000 square kilometers and a total population of 3,346,500 inhabitants, of which approximately 20,000 are Catholics, pastorally cared for by 51 priests and 26 nuns.
The Vatican and China agreement
The 2018 agreement, the content of which has not been made public until now, has been renewed three times: 2020, 2022 and 2024.
Unlike the first two times, the third renewal will not be for a duration of two but for four years.
In 2023, the Holy Father specified that the agreement includes a joint commission between the Chinese government and the Vatican for the appointment of Catholic bishops, supervised by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Perhaps one of the biggest critics of the agreement has been Cardinal Joseph Zen ze-kiun, who has suffered harassment from the communist regime, being tried and convicted after being accused of collaborating with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, who were part of the protests of 2019.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.