Both “open” and “underground” Church communities of Xiamen (Amoy) diocese in Fujian province in China welcomed their new bishop after being without one for almost two decades. About 2,000 Catholics packed Our Lady of Rosary Church in the coastal city of Xiamen on May 8, the feast of Our Lady of China, for the episcopal ordination of Bishop Joseph Cai Bingrui.
Six laypeople and three nuns from the underground community were also present for the rite to show their support and solidarity with the 44-year-old bishop.
The only underground priest in Xiamen told UCA News these Catholics said “the ceremony was smooth and joyous.” He said his 500-strong flock have maintained harmonious relations with Bishop Cai and the open Church community in recent years.
“I go to their church to celebrate Mass during major Church feasts. We get along in the spirit of love and peace,”he said. However, he did not attend the ordination Mass, as clerics of both Church communities are not in sacramental communion with one another.
Bishop Cai said both communities yearn for such unity.
“We share the same target and have a clear direction, that is, for the benefit and development of the Church,” especially after the Pope in his pastoral letter to Chinese Catholics in 2007 called for pardon and reconciliation within the Church, he told UCA News after his ordination.
His ordination was presided over by Bishop Johan Fang Xinyao of Linyi. Other prelates present were Bishops Joseph Li Mingshu of Qingdao, Paul Xiao Zejiang of Guiyang, Joseph Xu Honggen of Suzhou and Vincent Zhan Silu of Mindong, as well as retired Archbishop Joseph Cheng Tsai-fa of Taipei, a Xiamen native.
All bishops are Vatican-approved except for Bishop Zhan, whose diocese is also in Fujian.
About 60 priests from within and outside the province celebrated the Mass.
Two priests and about 20 laypeople from Taiwan, as well as some expatriate Catholics, including the Philippine consul general in Xiamen, joined the ceremony.
Bishop Cai said Taiwan was part of Xiamen diocese a century ago until it was made an apostolic prefecture in 1913. He said many Taiwanese pilgrimage groups visit Xiamen every year after cross-strait relations improved.
Diocesan administrator since 1996
Bishop Cai was born to a Catholic family in 1966. He entered the Sheshan seminary in Shanghai in 1985 and was ordained a priest in 1992. A year later, he took on the leading role in the diocese, as there were only two young priests after Bishop Joseph Huang Ziyu of Xiamen, the first Chinese bishop of Xiamen, and a few elderly priests died over the years.
The then Father Cai served as diocesan administrator from 1996. He was elected unanimously as the bishop candidate last June.
Xiamen diocese currently has nearly 30,000 Catholics, served by Bishop Cai, 10 priests and 16 nuns.
As the diocese has not had a bishop for 19 years, Bishop Cai said he will give priority to rebuilding Church structures, promoting priestly vocations and providing formation for priests, nuns and laypeople.
No young men have entered the seminary for about a decade, while it is not easy for non-native priests to serve here as rural Catholics are accustomed to speaking in the Minnan dialect, the new bishop said.
SIC: CTHIN