Vatican press office welcomes China’s recognition of Xinxiang bishop emeritus while new external report outlines concerns for bishop’s freedom

The Holy See Press Office issued a Dec. 6 statement about China’s civil recognition of Xinxiang emeritus Bishop Giuseppe Zhang Weizhu, which comes amid reported concerns for the bishop, who was allegedly prohibited from attending his successor’s episcopal ordination Dec. 5. 

“We are pleased to learn that today the episcopal dignity of His Excellency Giuseppe Zhang Weizhu, bishop emeritus of the Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang (Henan, mainland China), has been civilly recognized,” Matteo Bruni, the office’s director, said in a statement. “This measure is the result of dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese authorities and constitutes an important new step in the journey of communion of the ecclesiastical circumscription.”

Vatican News reports that the episcopal ordination of Bishop Zhang’s successor, Bishop Francis Li Jianlin, of Xinxiang occurred Dec. 5 and that Pope Leo XIV appointed him as bishop of the Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang in August. A separate report from Vatican News states that the new bishop’s candidacy was “approved within the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, and following the acceptance of the resignation from pastoral governance submitted by Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu.”

According to an April report from AsiaNews, Bishop Zhang is an underground bishop who was secretly ordained in 1991 and has been arrested several times since for exercising his ministry. 

A Dec. 6 AsiaNews report outlines concerns that remain for Bishop Zhang and why the episcopal ordination of Bishop Jianlin “is opening new wounds rather than healing old ones.” The outlet notes that Bishop Zhang, 67, has been persecuted for years over his refusal to join the Chinese Communist Party’s religious arm, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). 

A source from Henan told the AsiaNews that Bishop Zhang “is still under strict surveillance, deprived of freedom; his family cannot even see him or receive a sign of his safety, and yet the world is being told that he has been made ’emeritus’.”

Catholics who are a part of the underground Church in China lamented that Bishop Zhang was not able to be present at the Dec. 5 ordination, the outlet reported. 

“What we are losing is not only transparency and respect, but the fact that a pastor is treated as a clog in a process, not as a living person, in flesh and blood. May the truth not be silenced,” they said, according to AsiaNews. “May those who suffer be seen, and may the Church, under any circumstances, never become used to considering injustice and silence as something ‘normal’.”

AsiaNews reports that the CCPA’s website, China Catholic, claims in a statement that Bishop Zhang gave a speech “expressing the need to adhere to patriotism and love for religion, to adhere to the principle of independent and self-governing Churches, to follow the trend of the sinicisation of Catholicism in our country, and to contribute to the overall construction of a modern socialist country and the overall promotion of the great rebirth of the Chinese nation” — a statement AsiaNews warns is “highly unlikely” to have been authored by Bishop Zhang. 

The outlet published a comment submitted by an unnamed priest who ministers to the underground Chinese Catholic community about the diocese transition. 

According to the statement, Bishop Zhang reportedly gave only one condition when he was asked to submit his resignation: “That the situation of the priests and nuns of the underground community be provided for in a dignified manner.”

The priest described this condition as one from “a pastor who, despite years of surveillance, restrictions, and pressure, continued to care only for his people.”

Unfortunately, the request did not seem to be upheld, as no underground priests received communication before the ceremony, and many learned of the ordination through the state announcement.

“This is not a solution to problems: it is the creation of new conflicts,” the priest wrote, according to AsiaNews. 

The priest wrote that many priests of the underground Catholic community felt “ignored and cancelled” and that many local faithful hardly knew about this major diocesan event. 

“Today Xinxiang seems to be opening a new chapter, but many wounds remain open and many questions unanswered,” the priest wrote. “Perhaps the only way is this: to move towards the cross, towards the truth, towards Him who sees what people ignore and who never erases anyone from His heart.

“Despite the contradictions, suffering, and unresolved tensions, with filial hearts we nevertheless say: best wishes for the ordination of the new bishop. Every bishop is a gift to the Church.”

The priest offered prayers for Bishop Jianlin and expressed hope that the prelate will bring healing and unity and prioritize the Church’s needs over the temptation to acquiesce to political pressure. 

“May the cross of Bishop Zhang become a light for the prefecture,” he concluded. “May all those who have been excluded, silenced, forgotten know that for God, no one is an ‘empty place’. We do not know what the future holds, but we know one thing: God will not abandon His Church.”