Vatican and Beijing agree on new China bishop as ordination fills 20-year vacancy

Joseph Chang Yanfeng was ordained bishop of Chifeng in China’s northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Wednesday, highlighting the uneasy diplomatic engagement between Beijing and the Vatican on the sensitive issue of Catholic appointments.According to Vatican News, Pope Leo XIV approved Chang’s appointment on June 15, under the terms of a 2018 provisional agreement between the Holy See and Beijing.The ordination fills a vacancy for the Catholic diocese of Chifeng that had lasted nearly two decades, following the 2006 death of Andreas Zhu Wenyu, according to AsiaNews, a Catholic missionary news agency based in Italy.Zhu had been ordained bishop without a papal mandate in 1990, “but later, like other Chinese bishops, he requested and was granted re-entry into communion with Rome”, the report said.Chang had served as Chifeng’s diocesan administrator since 2021. The ordination of the 42-year-old priest was presided over by Bishop Paul Meng Qinglu of Hohhot, deputy chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, according to the association’s official website.What is religious Sinicisation in China and why is it important to Beijing?About 400 people attended the ordination, including priests, nuns and lay representatives from across Inner Mongolia.