Local church leaders in Wuhan diocese wanted to decide on the reassignment of priests to parishes in the dioceses, something that has not happened for years.
They held a meeting for this purpose on November 29 attended by 19 out of the 23 priests in Wuhan diocese, under the leadership of Father Joseph Shen Guo’an who has been temporarily in charge of Wuhan diocese. They drew up their own list of assignments and transfers between parishes.
On November 30, Father Shen announced the reassignment of the priests during a solemn Mass in the diocese that marked the beginning of the Year of Faith, Asianews reported. Parish delegates and faithful at the Mass welcomed the re-assignments.
Afterwards, however, Hubei Government officials interrogated the priests and warned against any changes. And they recalled from Beijing another priest from the diocese, Father Cui Qingqi, who was absent from the November 29 meeting because of his studies in the Chinese capital. He returned on December 1 and was seen to be with government officials before arriving at the diocese, Asianews reported.
On December 8, notwithstanding difficulties caused by Government officials, Father Shen and others resolutely implemented the transfer decision, according to Asianews. They sent new appointment letters to all parish priests and letters of notification to government departments for their record.
A week later, on December 13, the Provincial Government struck back. Some 15 priests and several nuns from the diocese were escorted to the office of the provincial Religious Affairs Bureau for a meeting, and there officials announced a reshuffle of leading clergy positions, local sources told UCA News.
They announced that Fr Shen was dismissed from his duties as the head of the diocese, and that Fr Shu Zigeng, secretary general of Provincial Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) and Church Affairs Commission, was also dismissed from his position of responsibility.
The authorities dismissed the two priests from the CPA, the state-entity set up by the Communist Government in the late 1950s to control the Catholic Church in China, a body Pope Benedict said was “incompatible” with Catholic doctrine.
At the December meeting, the Provincial authorities announced that they had replaced Father Shen and Fr. Shu with a five-member management committee led by Father Francis Cui Qingqi, who is said to be close to the government.
The other members of this new management committee are Sister Wu Lin (vice president of national CPA), Fr Li Bangmeng, Fr Gao Leiqing, and Hu Guowei, also a CPA member, Asianews reported.
At the confrontational December meeting, Father Cui appears to have taken a lead role. “No priests and nuns except Fr Cui were allowed to speak at the meeting,” a source told UCA News.
Thus in the absence of a bishop, the Hubei Provincial authorities have clearly decided they have the right to govern the Church in Wuhan. The last bishop, Bernardine Dong Gangqing, a Franciscan, was ordained without the Pope’s approval in 1958, and was one of the first two “self-elect and self-ordain bishops” in mainland China. He died on 12 May 2007 at the age of 90.
In 2011, the Chinese authorities tried to install their preferred candidate to succeed him as bishop, but they failed. The local Church’s candidate at that time was Fr Joseph Shen Guo’an, though he did not have the approval of the pope. He was subsequently informed by the authorities that his ordination was cancelled, without any explanation been given.
Since then, however, Father Shen has been temporarily in charge of Wuhan diocese but, as noted earlier, he defied the authorities in recent times over the clergy reassignments, and now has clearly fallen out of favour with the Provincial authorities.
Wuhan diocese was formerly known as Hankou archdiocese, but in the year 2000, the Government-sanctioned ‘open’ Church authorities merged Hankou with Hanyang and Wuchang dioceses, transforming them into one called Wuhan, named after the capital city of Hubei province.
At the end of 2009, the Wuhan diocese had some 15,000 baptized Catholics in a territory of 10 million people. They were then served by 25 priests and 25 religious sisters, in some 14 churches and mission points.
Wuhan diocese remains without a bishop, but sources think that this latest move by the Provincial Government authorities could be the prelude to the election of a candidate to be bishop who is close to the Government.