Ji Weizhong was ordained this morning, Monday 20 January 2025, as Bishop of the diocese of Lüliang, a new ecclesiastical circumscription erected by Pope Francis as a suffragan diocese of the episcopal see of Taiyuan, in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi. Pope Francis - reports the statement released today by the Vatican Press Office - had appointed Father Anthony Ji Bishop of Lüliang on October 28, 2024.
The ordination liturgy of the new Bishop was celebrated in the Cathedral
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Fenyang, which is now part of Lüliang
prefecture. The main celebrant of the episcopal ordination was Bishop
Paul Meng Ningyou, Bishop of Taiyuan. The other concelebrating Bishops
were Peter Liu Genzhu, of the diocese of Hongdong/Linfen, Bishop Paul Ma
Cunguo, of the diocese of Shuozhou, and Bishop Peter Ding Lingbin, of
the diocese of Changzhi. The celebration was attended by 130 priests
from Shanxi Province and other parts of China, as well as nuns,
seminarians and lay people, a total of 450 people.
Who is the new Bishop Ji Weizhong?
Anthony Ji Weizhong was born on August 3, 1973 in Wenshui County, China,
which is now part of the newly established Diocese of Lüliang. The
third of three children, he said in a short letter on his priestly
vocation that he was raised in the Catholic faith, especially through
the daily witness of his mother. The new Bishop studied theology at the National Seminary in Beijing from
1995 to 2001 and was ordained a priest on October 14, 2001 and
incardinated in the diocese of Fenyang. He then carried out linguistic
studies at Xi'an University.
In February 2005, Father Anthony Ji moved to Germany and began his
studies at the Sankt Augustin University of Philosophy and Theology, of
the missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word (Verbites), under the
spiritual guidance of the Verbites missionary Anton Weber. In March
2010, he completed his studies with a thesis on the model of the local
Church in China. On June 30, 2010, he gave a lecture on this topic at
the same university during a conference on the topic "The Church of
China on the way to financial independence?", an event organized by
China Zentrum that also saw the participation of Dr. Wolf Kantelhardt,
Head of the charitable organization Misereor for projects supported in
China.
Upon returning to the diocese of Fenyang, Father Ji served as assistant
parish priest, Head of the diocesan pastoral center and Vicar General.
In the aforementioned writing, Anthony Ji recalled the work done to open
new wells in the villages of Shanxi province and the pastoral work
aimed at promoting reconciliation processes in the local ecclesial
community.
The Erection of the new Diocese of Lüliang
The appointment and consecration of the new Bishop were preceded by two
papal provisions regarding the configuration of the network of
ecclesiastical circumscriptions in mainland China. On October 28, Pope
Francis, in view of the episcopal appointment of Anthony Ji, first
suppressed the diocese of Fenyang (established by Pope Pius XII in April
1946 and left vacant since January 2, 2023, with the death of the
96-year-old Bishop John Huo Cheng) and at the same time erected the new
diocese of Lüliang, entrusting it to the pastoral guidance of Ji
Waizhong, who was appointed Bishop of Lüliang on the same day.
The suppression of the diocese of Fenyang and the simultaneous canonical erection of the Diocese of Lüliang are part of the measures aimed at adapting the network of Chinese Catholic dioceses to the current reality of China, in the context of which the division of ecclesiastical districts dating back to the decades before the proclamation of the People's Republic of China is being at least partially modified and adapted. In the area in question, economic development in recent decades has changed the social and demographic profile of the area, which has also led to changes in the civil and administrative structure.
Lüliang has gained importance in relation to the surrounding area: in 1971 it was made a prefecture and in 2004 it was recognized as a prefecture-city. And the tendency for the ecclesiastical districts to coincide with the political-administrative division seems to be a constant in the decisions of the Holy See and the local Churches.
It is also worth remembering that the Council of the Church of China held in Shanghai in 1924 had already expressed in one of its “Vota” sent to the Holy See the need for a new division of the ecclesiastical regions and districts in order to adapt them - as far as possible - to the division of the civil provinces in China at that time.
The Holy See’s press release regarding the news of the suppression of the diocese of Fenyang and the erection of the diocese of Lüliang emphasized that these measures were ordered by Pope Francis "In the desire to promote the pastoral care of the Lord’s flock and to provide more effectively for their spiritual well-being".
The Holy See's statement states that the Diocese of Lüliang is a suffragan of Taiyuan, that the episcopal see remains "in the Cathedral Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Fenyang".
All the districts, urban areas and territories under the new diocese are listed to emphasize that "the territory of the Diocese of Lüliang corresponds to that of the capital Lüliang, with a total area of 21,000 square kilometers and a total population of 3,346,500 inhabitants, of whom about 20,000 are Catholics, cared for by 51 priests and 26 nuns."
In the years following the signing of the Provisional Agreement between Beijing and the Holy See on the appointment of Chinese Bishops (September 22, 2018), there have been eleven new Catholic episcopal ordinations in mainland China to date. During the same period, eight so-called "non-official" bishops have also asked for and received public recognition of their role by the political authorities in Beijing (one of them, the elderly Peter Lin Jiashan, Bishop of Fuzhou, who died in April 2023).
The number of vacant Chinese dioceses is gradually decreasing.