China: An “Underground” Bishop Is Recognized by the Government

The statement continues that “this measure is positive fruit of the dialogue established over the years between the Holy See and the Chinese government,” thus referring to the provisional agreement, valid for two years, signed in 2018 between the two States, and which was renewed in 2020 and 2022, always for the same duration, and should normally be renewed in October of this year.

The AsiaNews website reports more precisely on this event and what it really represents, far from the somewhat smug satisfaction that animates the Holy See’s statement. It begins by recalling that Bishop Shi Honghzen was an “underground” prelate who remained under arrest for a long time for refusing to join the Patriotic Association.”

The site adds that Bishop Shi Honghzen is 94 years old, and that he has been “bishop in a large diocese where there has been no ‘official’ bishop since 2005.” The news “was announced by the website chinacatholic.cn, the voice of the official Catholic bodies controlled by the Beijing government.”

It should be noted, however, the site adds, that this recognition “comes just a few weeks after decisions were made on how to renew the provisional agreement between Rome and Beijing, whose two-year term expires at the end of October.”

Biography of Bishop Melchior Shi Honghzen

Originally from Tianjin, the city of which he is bishop, he was born on October 7, 1929 and was ordained a priest in 1954. Bishop Shi Honghzen was consecrated coadjutor bishop in 1982 with the authorization of the Holy See by Bishop Stefano Li Side, another courageous underground bishop who paid for his defense of religious freedom in China with imprisonment and confinement until his death in 2019.”

Bishop Shi Honghzen has always refused to join the Patriotic Association, which is also the reason why he had never been recognized as a bishop by the Beijing authorities until now.

The website chinacatholic.cn reports an “installation ceremony for the Bishop of Tanjin in the presence of the Bishop of Beijing, Msgr. Joseph Li Shan ‘as president of the Patriotic Association and vice-president of the Council of Chinese Bishops’ (the collegiate body not officially recognized by the Holy See) and about a hundred people.”

According to AsiaNews, the website was also quick to report that “at the inauguration ceremony,. Shi Honghzen solemnly swore to abide by the National Constitution, to safeguard the unity of the homeland and social harmony, to love the country and the Church, and to always adhere to the direction of the sinicization of Catholicism in China,” 

But as AsiaNews comments, “as the pictures themselves show, the ceremony did not take place in the historic St. Joseph’s Church in Xikai – which is the seat of the cathedral - but in a room of a city hotel. According to local sources, it was Msgr. Melchior himself who wanted this location, thus emphasizing the civil character of the ceremony, since canonically he was already the bishop of Tianjin.” 

The fact remains that recognizing a 94-year-old bishop - an age before which he should have, in a normal situation, presented his resignation long ago - does not commit the Chinese government much, but gives it cheap publicity. And the satisfaction of the Holy See looks rather like self-persuasion.