Pope Francis appointed Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang as the new Bishop of Hangzhou (China), within the framework of the agreement signed with Beijing in September 2018.
“In the framework of the dialogue regarding the application of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, dated June 12, 2024, the Holy Father has appointed Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang as Bishop of Hangzhou (Chinese Province of Zhejiang)”, points out a use from the Vatican Press Office published this June 22.
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Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang was born on April 11, 1970 in (Shandong). He is 54 years old.
He studied Philosophy and Theology at the Holy Spirit Seminary in Shandong and at Sheshan Seminary in Shanghai. He was ordained a priest on June 15, 1995; and he dedicated himself to teaching in the place where he studied.
He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Zhoucun and received episcopal consecration on November 15, 2010. He fully assumed the diocese on February 8, 2013.
A coadjutor bishop collaborates with the local bishop as an auxiliary would, with the difference that he has the right of automatic succession, which becomes effective when the local ordinary resigns or dies.
The agreement between China and the Vatican to appoint bishops
The 2018 agreement, the content of which has not been made public until now, has been renewed twice: in 2020 and 2022.
In this regard, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, commented on June 20 that “we are in dialogue with China as we have been for some time, we are seeking the best procedures for the approval of the agreement signed at the time and which will be renewed at end of this year” 2024.
The cardinal highlighted that the agreement is “provisional” because “it is indicated that it is a starting point. Confirmed on two occasions in recent years, it has had an important role in specific cases.”
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 2019 protests.
Walter Sanchez 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.