The curriculum ends in Jiulongpo.
It does not say that the new archbishop is deputy secretary-general of the Council of Bishops of the Catholic Church in China, vice-president of Chongqing’s Catholic “two associations” and secretary-general of its Committee for Ecclesiastical Affairs. Official Chinese information does say so.
The detail matters because the Council to which Ding belongs is not an episcopal conference recognized by the Holy See.
Benedict XVI stated in writing in 2007 that it could not be recognized as such because it did not include the underground bishops, counted illegitimate prelates among its members and was governed by statutes containing elements incompatible with Catholic doctrine.
Nineteen years later, no public document has revoked that judgment. What has changed is the episcopate that makes up the body: several of its current leaders are bishops recognized by Rome and some reached the episcopate after holding positions in the Council itself.
Ding does not inaugurate that path. Francis Cui Qingqi, today bishop of Wuhan and vice-president of the Council, was elected deputy secretary-general in December 2016 and received episcopal consecration on 8 September 2021 after being appointed by Francis.
Peter Luo Xuegang, bishop of Yibin with pontifical approval since 2011, also passed through the deputy secretary-general’s office before being elected vice-president in 2022. The official structure published by the Chinese Church itself allows one to follow the promotions without having to resort to underground sources.
The paradox is simple: Rome does not recognize the Council as an episcopal conference, yet it recognizes the bishops who lead it. And now it has raised one of its deputy secretaries to one of the country’s principal sees.
The phenomenon takes on another dimension when one looks at the Chongqing ceremony. The six bishops who laid hands on Ding also belong to the leadership of the same Council. Joseph Li Shan, bishop of Beijing and president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, is a vice-president. So are He Zeqing, bishop of Wanzhou; Luo Xuegang, of Yibin; and Cui Qingqi, of Wuhan. Xiao Zejiang and Zhen Xuebin appear among the deputy secretaries-general. The official Chinese account of the consecration identifies each of them with those positions.
We are not, therefore, dealing with an archbishop coming from the periphery of the official structures who was accompanied by some of its leaders by chance. The new archbishop is a leader of the Council and those who consecrated him form part of the leadership of the same body.
An organism subject to Beijing’s religious policy
It is worth translating the names. The so-called “two associations” are the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, founded in 1957, and the Council of Bishops, constituted in 1980. They form the national structure of the Catholic Church recognized by the State and operate within the system of religious administration placed since 2018 under the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party.
The current statutes of the Council of Bishops do not conceal the framework. The body declares that it upholds the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system, applies Xi Jinping’s thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics, maintains the principle of independence and self-governance of the Church and promotes the adaptation of Catholicism to socialist society.
The Council also participates directly in the Chinese episcopal mechanism: its statutes assign it responsibilities in the election, approval and consecration of bishops.
That helps to understand better what it means that Ding was deputy secretary-general before receiving the mitre. He was not simply a parish priest enrolled in a civil association in order to exercise his ministry publicly. He was part of the leadership of the body that intervenes in the selection of candidates for the episcopate.
Nor is it the only official structure in which he held responsibilities. In Chongqing he was vice-president of the “two associations” and secretary-general of the Committee for Ecclesiastical Affairs.
At the end of June, barely two months before his consecration, Ding participated as a responsible official in the review of a campaign of political and administrative formation directed at the local clergy. The meeting was presided over by He Zeqing, bishop of Wanzhou, vice-president of the Council and president of Chongqing’s Committee for Ecclesiastical Affairs.
Representatives of the United Front took part in the proceedings. The orientation set for the clergy included deepening the decisions of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, strengthening national and legal consciousness, maintaining the principle of independence and self-governance and advancing the adaptation of Catholicism to socialist society.
Ding was inside the machinery before Rome approved his candidacy.
From the National Seminary to the mitre
The biography released by the Holy See does mention that Ding was a formator between 2012 and 2014 at the National Seminary of Beijing. But that datum cannot be fully understood without knowing the organizational chart.
The National Seminary, founded in 1983 and currently located in Beijing’s Daxing district, is managed by the national Catholic structures. Its board of trustees is presided over by Li Shan, bishop of Beijing, current president of the Patriotic Association and vice-president of the Council of Bishops.
When Ding arrived there as a formator, the rector was Ma Yinglin, bishop of Kunming. Ma had been consecrated without a pontifical mandate on 30 April 2006 and was excommunicated. In 2010 he was elected president of the Council of Bishops, a post he held during the two years in which Ding formed seminarians. Francis lifted his excommunication on 22 September 2018, precisely the day Rome and Beijing signed the Provisional Agreement.
The current rector, Guo Jincai, offers a similar trajectory. He was ordained bishop of Chengde in November 2010 without a pontifical mandate, was excommunicated and was rehabilitated by Francis in 2018. For twelve years he was secretary-general of the Council and is currently one of its vice-presidents.
In January 2024, already as rector of the National Seminary, Guo opened the end-of-semester meeting by reading an initiative linked to the Patriotic Education Law and calling for maintaining unity between loving the country, loving the Party and loving socialism.
That is the seminary in which Ding formed future priests for two academic years. From there he left in March 2014 for Rome, where he studied for a year at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
A structure that has already brought other leaders to the episcopate
Ding’s case makes sense when compared with the men who today occupy the leadership of the Council.
Cui Qingqi had reached the deputy secretary-general’s office in 2016. In 2021 Francis appointed him bishop of Wuhan. A year later, the tenth National Assembly of Chinese Catholicism promoted him to vice-president of the Council.
Luo Xuegang followed another itinerary. He was consecrated coadjutor of Yibin in November 2011 with the approval of the Holy See. In 2016 he was elected deputy secretary-general of the Council and in 2022 he also moved to the vice-presidency.
Zhen Xuebin, today auxiliary bishop of Beijing, likewise appears in the current leadership of the Council. Francis appointed him coadjutor of Beijing in August 2024 after approving his candidacy within the Provisional Agreement and he was consecrated in October of that year. He currently appears among the deputy secretaries-general of the body.
Ding now occupies the same institutional rung from which other prelates have risen within the official structure. At 44 he has just become archbishop of Chongqing, a see that had been vacant since March 2001.
No public documentation allows one to affirm that the deputy secretary-general’s office of the Council is formally a stepping-stone to the episcopate. But the roster permits one to observe a succession of careers that cross the same body again and again.
Cui: deputy secretary, bishop and then vice-president.
Luo: bishop, deputy secretary and vice-president.
Zhen: leader of the Council and bishop of Beijing.
Ding: deputy secretary and now archbishop of Chongqing.
Four consecrations in seven weeks
Ding’s arrival in Chongqing occurs amid an acceleration of episcopal appointments under the Provisional Agreement. It is the fourth bishop consecrated in China in barely seven weeks.
On 22 July Giuseppe Chang Yanfeng was ordained bishop of Chifeng, after Leo XIV approved his candidacy on 15 June. A week later, on 29 July, Francis Xavier Duan Yongkun received consecration as coadjutor of Bameng, likewise after an approval by Leo XIV within the Agreement.
On 31 August Datong arrived. Paolo Liu Honggang was consecrated after Leo XIV approved his candidacy and appointed him to the diocese on 10 August. The Chinese communication reported that Yang Yu, secretary-general of the Council of Bishops, read during the ceremony the document of approval issued by the official body.
Eight days later Chongqing arrived.
The Holy See announced that Leo XIV had appointed Ding Yang on 28 July “having approved his candidacy within the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.” Rome thus explained the pontifical part of the procedure.
The official Chinese communication showed the other half: Ding had been elected candidate on 15 April, Yang Yu read during the ceremony the approval of the Council of Bishops and the new archbishop was already deputy secretary-general of that same body.
What Rome did not publish was precisely that last part of the curriculum.
The Council that Rome does not recognize is full of bishops that Rome does recognize
The underlying question is no longer simply who appointed Ding.
The Provisional Agreement has been producing a new institutional reality. In 2007, when Benedict XVI explained why Rome could not recognize the Council of Bishops as an episcopal conference, one of the reasons was that it was made up of illegitimate prelates and excluded underground bishops recognized by Rome.
In 2018 Francis lifted the excommunications of seven bishops ordained without a pontifical mandate. Since then, the appointments agreed under the Agreement have added new prelates recognized simultaneously by Rome and by the Chinese authorities.
The result can be seen today in the leadership of the Council.
Li Shan is in communion with Rome and is a vice-president. He Zeqing is recognized by Rome and is a vice-president. Luo Xuegang was consecrated with pontifical approval and is a vice-president. Cui Qingqi was appointed by Francis and is a vice-president. Zhen Xuebin was appointed by Francis and is a deputy secretary. Ding Yang has just been appointed by Leo XIV and is a deputy secretary.
The body has not been recognized by the Vatican.
Its leaders, one after another, have been.
And while this transformation takes place, the document that would allow one to know exactly what role corresponds to Beijing, to the Council of Bishops and to the Pope in the selection of candidates remains beyond the reach of Catholics.
The Provisional Agreement remains secret. The roster does not.