Newsroom (01/05/2025 20:12, Gaudium Press) The vacant see period, while providing an interregnum towards a new Pontiff, allows the revelation of “secrets of certain hearts”, not on an individual level, but in the context of the local Churches.
After the German Church published, without the Holy See’s approval, a booklet on the blessing of homosexual couples; an act that goes against agreements already established with the Holy See, The Pillar reported that a diocese in China has “elected” its bishop, despite not having the Vatican’s approval.
The diocese of Xinxiang announced yesterday that it had chosen Father Li Janlin, a local priest, as its new prelate.
According to The Pillar, this action was coordinated by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, an entity under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. This once again casts doubt on the (still secret) agreement between China and the Vatican, which presumably gives Chinese entities the ability to interfere in the selection of candidates for the episcopate, but always with the intervention and authorization of the Holy See. In short, this measure ratifies that Chinese communism’s interest lies in building a national Catholic Church, free from “foreign” interference.
Furthermore, the choice of the new bishop of Xinxiang is made even more complex by the fact that this diocese, recognized and erected by the Holy See in 1936, already has a bishop, Monsignor Joseph Zhang Weizhu, appointed as such by Saint John Paul II in 1991. This bishop has been the target of severe persecution by the Chinese Communist regime throughout his life.
The Pillar‘s sources say that the election of this new bishop reaffirms that the Sino-Vatican agreement has failed to overcome the harsh reality faced by the Chinese Church under communism: on the one hand, an official Church, controlled by the state, and on the other, an underground Church, of silence, faithful to the tradition of the Roman Church.
Compiled by Dominic Joseph
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