Bishop Francis Li Jianlin was ordained on December 5 to head the prefecture of Xinxiang, in Henan province, with the approval of Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican has announced.
The Vatican announcement said that the new bishop was appointed by Pope Leo in August, “in accordance with the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.” In fact the Chinese government announced the bishop’s appointment in April, after the death of Pope Francis and before Pope Leo’s election.
The Vatican reported that the Pope had accepted the resignation of Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu, whose leadership of the Xinxiang prefecture had never been recognized by the Chinese regime. Bishop Zhang Weizhu—who at the age of 67 is still well short of retirement age—was arrested by authorities in 2021 and held for over a year; it is not clear whether he is now free.