Pope Francis established the diocese of Lüliang (China) to replace the pre-existing diocese of Fenyang, announced the Holy See Press Office on January 20, 2025. The ordination of the diocese's new bishop, Antonio Ji Weizhong, took place on the same day. The pontiff approved his appointment on October 28 under the provisional agreement with China, which was renewed for four years on October 22.
The cathedral of the new diocese remains in the city of Fenyang (population 380,000). However, the diocese is now attached to the sub-region's main city, Lüliang, a “prefecture city” of over 3 million inhabitants. Also, the diocese's geographical boundaries are slightly modified — a small part is ceded to the neighboring diocese of Yuci — to enable the diocesan territory to match that of the local Chinese administrative sub-region.
The mismatch between diocesan territories and those of Chinese administrative subdivisions has posed problems in the past.
In November 2022, the installation of a bishop in the “Jiangxi diocese” — not recognized by Rome, but corresponding to a Chinese province — demonstrated certain limits of the pastoral arrangement currently in place. The Holy See expressed its disagreement and discontent, and expressed the hope that such an episode would not recur.
A 12th bishop
Ordained the first bishop of Lüliang on January 20, 2025, Bishop Antonio Ji Weizhong became the 12th bishop installed under the provisional and secret Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops in China, signed by Beijing and the Holy See in 2018, and renewed in 2020, 2022 and 2024 (this time for four years).
A native of the region (Shanxi), he studied at the Beijing seminary. That formation center is run by the Patriotic Association, the official Church body in China, controlled by the Communist Party and not recognized by Rome. He received priestly ordination in 2001.
After studying linguistics at Xian University, Fr. Ji Weizhong obtained a licentiate in theology at St. Augustine's University in Bonn, Germany. He then served as vicar, pastoral leader, and vicar general in Fenyang.
One of the first dioceses to be headed by a Chinese bishop
Located 500km (310 miles) southwest of Beijing, Fenyang was originally an apostolic vicariate, created in 1926 in response to the Council of Shanghai (1924). Its first bishop, Bishop Aloysus Chen Guodi, was a native Franciscan. He was one of six Chinese bishops ordained by Pius XI in Rome in 1926.
After the erection of Fenyang as a diocese in 1946 by Pius XII, the Vatican continued to appoint bishops despite the Communist revolution. The last bishop of Fenyang, Bishop John Huo Cheng, was appointed bishop in 1991 by the Vatican with the agreement of the Communist government. Prior to this, he had spent 14 years in a labor camp following the Cultural Revolution. He died in 2023.
