Bishop François Li Jianlin was consecrated Bishop of the Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang, in Henan, on December 5, 2025.
The new prelate had been unilaterally appointed bishop by the Chinese authorities the week following the death of Pope Francis, reviving concerns about the real scope of the secret provisional agreement signed in 2018 between the Holy See and China.
On December 5, 2025, 200 faithful, priests, nuns, and representatives of the civil authorities attended the event.
The pontifical mandate was granted by Leo XIV within the framework of the Sino-Vatican provisional agreement on episcopal appointments.
The ceremony takes place against a backdrop of increased restrictions on religious practice, particularly the ban on minors accessing churches – previously encouraged by Bishop Li Jianlin – that further limits freedom of worship.
A missionary territory established at the end of the 19th century, the Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang now comprises a dynamic community of approximately 50,000 faithful, served by about forty priests.
The story began in 1898 with the arrival of Fr. Gérard Brambilla, a missionary from the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME).
German and American missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) erected a church dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes in 1911.
Over the decades, the community has distinguished itself through its charitable works: medical assistance during the typhus epidemic in 1934-1935, a smallpox vaccination campaign in 1938, and the sheltering of 100,000 refugees during the Sino-Japanese War.
Expelled in the 1950s by the revolutionaries, foreign missionaries were replaced by a local church that has managed to survive despite the difficulties. Under Deng Xiaoping, places of worship were restored, and the number of faithful increased.
It is in this historical context that Bishop Li Jianlin, born on July 9, 1974, in Huixian into a devout Catholic family, was chosen to succeed Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu.
After his formation in the Zhengding and Yixian (Hebei) seminaries from 1990 to 1999, he was ordained a priest on July 23, 1999, by Bishop Nicolas Shi Jingxian, Bishop of Shangqiu, for the Diocese of Xinxiang.
He served as parish priest in Qinyang (1999-2000), as a formator of seminarians and religious sisters, and then as parish priest in Jiaozuo since 2011.
From 2013, he was rewarded for his fidelity in implementing the directives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by becoming vice-director and secretary general of the Henan Catholic Affairs Committee of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).
His appointment, effective August 11, 2025, was accepted by Pope Leo XIV after the resignation of his predecessor, according to the 2018 provisional agreement between the Holy See and China.
It was renewed in October 2024 for four years.
On the one hand, the Vatican's approval, announced by the Holy See Press Office, officially falls within an effort to normalize episcopal appointments.
The agreement, upheld by Pope Leo XIV, would grant the Holy See a veto right over candidates proposed by the Chinese authorities, aiming to unify the Church, which is divided between the "official" branch, affiliated with the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) and aligned with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the "underground" branch, loyal to Rome but persecuted.
However, the reality is not so rosy.
In Xinxiang, the transition is particularly painful: Bishop Zhang Weizhu, appointed in 1991 by John Paul II, had led the underground community for decades.
The courageous 67-year-old prelate consistently refused to join the bodies controlled by the CPCA, enduring repeated arrests, house arrest, and a police raid in May 2021 that dismantled his underground seminary.
According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, he remains imprisoned without trial. His exclusion from the consecration ceremony – neither mentioned on the CPCA website nor pictured at the ordination – is perceived as a victory for state control over the underground communities, and over the Vatican, which, once again, seems to have been presented with a fait accompli.
The consecration ceremony itself reflected this ambiguity.
Concelebrated by Bishop Thaddeus Wang Yuesheng (Bishop of Zhengzhou), Bishop Joseph Zhang Yinlin (Bishop of Anyang), and Bishop Peter Jin Lugang (Bishop of Nanyang), – all from the official Church aligned with the Party – it saw Joseph Yang Yu, secretary general of the CPCA, read a letter of approval from the Chinese Bishops' Conference – not recognized by Rome – curiously omitting any reference to papal assent.
This new episode illustrates the paradox of the Sino-Vatican dialogue: institutional progress is being made at the cost of eroded ecclesial autonomy.
In Henan, a region with a strong Catholic tradition, the future of the faith oscillates between compromise and perseverance, under the watchful gaze of Our Lady of Sheshan – the equivalent of Lourdes in China – who never ceases to protect her children.