The new bishop of Haimen in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, Bishop Joseph Shen Bin, 40, was ordained with both papal mandate and government recognition at the Good Shepherd Cathedral in Nantong city on April 21. The ordination took place three days after Bishop Paul Meng Qinglu was ordained the bishop of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, UCA News reports.
The main celebrant at Bishop Shen’s Ordination was Bishop Johan Fang Xinyao of Linyi from Shandong province, assisted by Bishops Francis Lu Xinping of Nanjing and Joseph Xu Honggen of Suzhou, both from Jiangsu.
Coadjutor Bishop John Wang Renlei of Xuzhou, also from Jiangsu, concelebrated the ordination Mass. All prelates are Vatican approved except Bishop Wang, who was ordained without a papal mandate in 2006.
The recent two ordinations, even with the appearance of an illegitimate bishop here, were a sign that China has been making greater concessions, as it can tolerate some bishop candidates with papal mandates, Church observers told UCA News.
While the Vatican and Chinese authorities still have considerable differences, they have shown recently that they are prepared to be realistic and compromise to avoid conflicts, the observers said.
Some 30 priests and 1,500 laypeople attended the liturgy.
Bishop Shen told UCA News that he will give top priority to the ongoing formation of his priests, nuns and laypeople.
The diocese would also expand its services to the needy, he said.
Born to a Catholic family in 1970, Bishop Shen graduated from the National Seminary in Beijing and was ordained a priest in 1996. He served in parishes until he worked in the diocesan curia since 2002. He was appointed vicar general in 1999.
His predecessor Bishop Matthew Yu Chengcai, who was not recog-nized by the Vatican, died at the age of 89 in 2006.
The diocese currently has nine priests, 21 nuns, three seminarians and 30,000 Catholics, who are mostly farmers and workers.
Haimen was one of the first native apostolic vicariates and its first Bishop Simon Zhu Kaimin was among the first batch of six Chinese bishops ordained by Pope Pius XI in Rome in 1926.
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