Back in business? Vatican creates new Chinese diocese, names new bishops

With the Vatican-China deal set to expire later this year, Beijing and Rome have suddenly made new progress on episcopal appointments

Within a week, the Vatican and Chinese government have successfully pushed through a small slate of episcopal appointments, under the norms of a 2018 bilateral agreement on the appointment of bishops.

Catholic Church in China. Image credit: Peter Griffin, Creative Commons/public domain.

The filling of two vacant sees, along with the conversion of an apost…