Chinese diocese ‘elects’ new bishop despite sede vacante

A local priest was "elected" to lead the Diocese Xinxiang, despite the papal interregnum and despite the diocese already having a bishop

The Chinese mainland Diocese of Xinxiang has “elected” a local priest to become its new bishop, it was announced yesterday, despite the death of Pope Francis on April 21 and the current period of sede vacante in the Church.

Xishiku Church, Beijing, China. Image via Shutterstock

Local priest Fr. Li Janlin was “elected” as the sole candidate for the office of diocesan bishop on April 29, in a move coordinated by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the state-sponsored group under the Communist Party responsible for the regulation of Catholic clergy and practice on the mainland.

The announcement highlights the continued official policy of the Chinese state not to recognize any outside authority in the organization of the Church in China, including the Holy See.

The news also highlights the controversial deal agreed between Rome and Beijing in 2018 on the appointment of mainland bishops, which granted Chinese state authorities a role in presenting and approving candidates for episcopal office.

That agreement was substantially delivered and subsequently defended by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State under Pope Francis, and currently a leading candidate ahead of the conclave due to begin on May 7.

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The “election” of Fr. Li, first reported by Asia News, was carried out by an invited assembly of local clerics, and is seen as valid and final by the CPCA and Chinese government under laws which assert complete and independent authority by the national bodies over religious practice in China.

The move to appoint Li comes despite the papacy currently being vacant, making it impossible for the Holy See to recognize or ratify the appointment — which would prove especially difficult since there is already a Bishop of Xinxiang appointed and recognized by Rome.

According to canon law, the pope alone freely appoints bishops in the universal Church.

The “election” of Li highlights the continued controversy and dysfunction of the Vatican-China deal, renewed in 2020, 2022, and 2024, since Communist Party officials have regularly moved to install bishops in several dioceses without prior consultation with Rome or approval of the Holy See.

In some cases, the Vatican has subsequently announced its recognition of the appointments post hoc.

In others, however, it has been unable to do so, since the government has also moved to suppress and create entire dioceses — another exclusive papal prerogative not believed to be part of the Vatican-China deal.

The move to recognize Fr. Li as the bishop of the Diocese of Xinxiang is further complicated by the fact that the diocese, recognized and erected by the Holy See in 1936, already has a bishop, Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu, who was appointed by Pope St. John Paul II in 1991.

Zhang has led the diocese for decades as an “underground bishop,” unrecognized by the government.

Senior clerics from the mainland told The Pillar Wednesday that Li’s “election” would have been organized prior to the death of Pope Francis, but that the decision to carry it forward in the sede vacante period was part of a policy of not officially acknowledging Rome in relation to episcopal appointments.

“You have to understand,” said one mainland who asked not to be named citing concerns of state reprisal, “the state Church cannot acknowledge the Vatican. It is simply a foreign power so far as they are concerned. There isn’t even a mention of the Holy Father’s death on the [CPCA] website. If you got your news from them you might not know that it had happened.”

Another senior mainland cleric told The Pillar that Li’s “election” was a reflection of the “dual realities” in which the Church in China has to exist.

“He has been elected to that office because Beijing considers it vacant, and so the government will consider him to be the bishop, and Bishop Zhang is a nobody,” the cleric said. But, he noted, “whether the new bishop considers himself the head of the diocese, or simply an auxiliary to Zhang and holding his place we can’t know.”

This duality of state and underground hierarchy in a single diocese has become a feature of local Catholic life since the 2018 Vatican-China deal, the cleric noted, saying it was “not uncommon now or in the past” for the supposedly rival bishops to actually have an understanding between themselves.

The same cleric also said that the dysfunctions of the Vatican-China deal were obvious, though “it is not nothing that Catholics who were previously not in communion with the Pope now are [following Vatican recognition of state-sponsored bishops and churches].”

“In fact it is a grace,” he said.

“However,” he continued, “aside from that, this agreement has allowed the Beijing government greater control over the Catholic Church in China and the lives of Chinese Catholics. Most of us here see the agreement as an example of Beijing playing the Vatican for fools and getting away with it. This is further proof of that.”

The attempted appointment of a new diocesan bishop on the Chinese mainland comes as the College of Cardinals gathers in Rome for the daily general congregations which precede the papal conclave next week.

The controversial Vatican-China deal has already been a subject of discussion, and how the next pope might choose to engage with China and respond to attempted appointments like the one in Xinxiang could loom large in the discernment of the cardinal electors.

Speaking to official Vatican media earlier this year, Cardinal Parolin — who as Secretary of State was responsible for the Vatican-China deal’s agreement and implementation — addressed the impression of “weakness” many have of Rome’s position.

The cardinal said that he was “not shocked by differing views [on the deal], as some may believe,” and admitted that other approaches were possible.

“Other solutions may exist” for the Vatican’s approach to Chinese relations, the cardinal conceded. But “the Holy See deemed this agreement to be the most effective solution to begin a dialogue with one of the key issues on the table… the appointment of bishops.”

Parolin acknowledged the chosen “solution” was “progressing slowly—sometimes even taking a step backwards” and “not always successful” with its two main goals: ensuring that all Chinese bishops are in formal communion with the pope and “ensuring some degree of normalization” for the daily life of the local Church.

According to Parolin in January, the Vatican-China deal is “beginning to bear some fruit,” though he conceded, “these fruits might not yet be visible.”