A new episcopal appointment in mainland China

Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang, who had been Bishop of Zhoucun since 2013, was appointed by Pope Francis as Bishop of Hangzhou on June 12, 2024. The Holy See Press Office made the appointment public 10 days later, on June 22. The statement says that the decision was taken as "part of the dialogue concerning the application of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China." 

This highly contested agreement was signed in September 2018 and has been renewed twice so far. It institutionalized dialogue between Rome and Beijing on the subject of episcopal appointments. However, critics of the agreement point out that this happened at the cost of greater Chinese government control over the activities of the local Catholic Church.

Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang was born on April 11, 1970, in Boxing (Shandong). He studied philosophy and theology at the Holy Spirit Seminary in Shandong and then at the Sheshan Seminary in Shanghai. He received priestly ordination on June 15, 1995, as part of the regime-controlled Patriotic Church. After serving as a parish priest, he continued his studies at the national seminary in Beijing. He then became a professor at the Shandong seminary.

Yongquiang was appointed coadjutor bishop of Zhoucun in 2009 and consecrated on November 15, 2010 with a pontifical mandate. He then became bishop in his own right on February 8, 2013, succeeding Bishop Ma Xuesheng. This was the last appointment of a Chinese bishop under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, three days before his resignation. At the time, no general agreement governed relations between Rome and Beijing. However, case-by-case agreements established the joint recognition of certain bishops by the government and the Holy See.

The announcement on June 22, 2024, of his transfer to Huangzhou, China's 12th largest city, comes against an apparent backdrop of relative détente between Rome and Beijing since the start of the year. This has manifested itself in the visits of two cardinals to mainland China: the Bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow, and the Archbishop Emeritus of Malines-Brussels, Cardinal Jozef De Kesel. 

Three new bishops were ordained in January 2024 within the scope of the 2018 provisional agreement. The appointment of Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang on June 12 is the 10th in total within this framework, although this time it's a simple transfer and not an episcopal ordination.

Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang is well known in Rome, where he took part in the October 2023 synod assembly. In an interview with the Fides news agency, he expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for having had "the opportunity to share his faith journey while listening to that of others." He expressed the hope that "the Church in China and the universal Church will progress together along the synodal path in Jesus Christ, giving glory to the Lord and doing good for people."

Previously very rare, public statements on China are becoming increasingly common at the Vatican. If there were "openness on the part of the Chinese," Pope Francis would go there "immediately," Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin told journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Rome on June 20, 2024. "We are trying to find the best procedures also for the application of the Agreement [...] which will be renewed at the end of this year," said the Holy See's number two. 

Pope Francis "has a great appreciation indeed and does not miss an opportunity to express it towards the Chinese people and the Chinese nation," Cardinal Parolin also said, explaining the Argentine pontiff's interest by his Jesuit heritage. The Jesuits are the congregation that evangelized China. The Jesuits have managed to establish their legitimacy in China, even with the current government, notably through the figure of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610). He was a scholarly missionary who managed to integrate himself into the Chinese imperial court and is currently the subject of a beatification process.

Since the beginning of his pontificate, the Pope has been committed to bringing the Catholic Church closer to Xi Jinping's China, despite complex and sometimes tense relations. As recently as June 19, during his general audience, he publicly paid tribute to "this noble people, so courageous, who have such a beautiful culture."

To mark the centenary of the Concilium Sinense, the Catholic Church's first and only synod in China, the Holy See held a seminar on May 21, attended by Bishop Joseph Shen Bin, President of the Chinese Bishops' Conference (not yet recognized by the Vatican) and Bishop of Shanghai. His appointment was regularized by the Holy See in July 2023, three months after he was appointed by the government.

In a video message sent to seminar participants, Pope Francis stressed the importance of Chinese Catholics being "in communion with the Bishop of Rome," so that they can truly contribute to the good not only of Chinese society, but more broadly, to the "social coexistence" of peoples.