Beijing: Coadjutor Bishop Ordained Under Secret Agreement
Bishop Matthew Zhen Xuebin
A Coadjutor Bishop, Bishop Matthew Zhen Xuebin, was consecrated in Beijing on October 25, 2024, to assist and then succeed the current bishop, Bishop Li Shan, in the Cathedral of the Saviour. Pope Francis had approved the appointment on August 28. Bishop Li Shan has been Bishop of Beijing since 2007.
“The celebration took place [...] in the presence of about 140 priests and 500 faithful representing the Catholic community of Beijing but also that of Shanxi, from where the new bishop hails,” AsiaNews reports.
The episcopal consecration, according to the customs of the Sino-Vatican agreement—which has just been renewed for 4 years, but is still being kept secret—was announced by the Holy See Press Office bulletin on October 25. The press release states that the appointment was made on August 28.
AsiaNews aptly notes that this appointment therefore preceded the renewal of the agreement. The website of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions notes with astonishment that no official reason has been given for the appointment of a prelate with right of succession to a pastor who is scarcely older than himself.
“According to some sources,” AsiaNews continues, “Li Shan himself asked for the appointment of a coadjutor, suggesting the name of the priest who had been his closest aide for some time in running the archdiocese. In addition to being archbishop, Mgr Li also chairs the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and is vice-president of the Council of Chinese Bishops [two structures subject to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)].”
Another comment from AsiaNews: “in publishing the profile of Bishop Zhen, who was born on 10 May 1970 in Changzhi, the Vatican Press Office also mentions that after his first years at the seminary of Beijing and before his priestly ordination, ‘he continued his studies at Saint John's University, United States,’ which he attended between 1993 and 1997, ‘obtaining a licentiate in liturgy’.
“This detail about his studies in the United States was omitted in the biographical notes published on the official website of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.” This is certainly no coincidence.
This consecration shows once again that the bishops chosen by the CCP are subservient to it, and belong to the structures—schismatic ones—set up by the Party to insulate bishops from Rome's influence. By the miracle of the signing of the agreement, they are now “in full communion,” even if they scrupulously follow the CCP line.
In particular, the CPA regularly re-educates bishops, priests, and faithful to follow the line imposed by Xi Jinping on the “Sinicization” of Catholicism, which has nothing to do with inculturation, as the Curia and even the Pope strive to persuade themselves, but rather with the introduction of Marxism into religion.
What is more, the bishops of this structure are putting pressure on priests to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, and they can count on the Vatican's endorsement for this, which certainly doesn't oblige them to join the Association, but does authorize it.
As for this appointment of the Beijing Bishop's Coadjutor, it is difficult to be certain about the background of the matter, but it bears a strong resemblance to the maneuvers that can be seen within CCP apparatuses, showing that bishoprics are no more than cogs in the Party's machinery for controlling Catholics.
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(Sources : Vatican/Asianews – FSSPX.Actualités)
Illustration : Asianews