Pingliang – Anthony Li Hui, currently Coadjutor Bishop of Pingliang, in the Chinese province of Gansu, has assumed the leadership of the diocese, succeeding 85-year-old Bishop Nicholas Han Jide OFM Cap, who is now Bishop Emeritus of the same diocese.
The Chinese Catholic online portals Xinde.org and chinacatholic.cn report that the Bishop’s installation took place during a solemn Eucharistic celebration on January 15, with the participation of the faithful and in the presence of representatives of the civil authorities.
In his homily, Bishop Anthony Li emphasized that he will continue the pastoral approach of his predecessor, supporting the clergy and the faithful on their journey of faith and working to foster the beginning of a new era of evangelizing mission.
Bishop Emeritus Nicholas Han also thanked the civil authorities for their presence.
Anthony Li Hui, who was appointed by Pope Francis as Coadjutor Bishop of Pingliang on January 11, 2021, received episcopal ordination on July 28, 2021, in the Cathedral of Pingliang. On that occasion, Matteo Bruni, Director of the Holy See Press Office, stated in response to journalists’ questions: “I can confirm that today, Wednesday 28 July 2021, in the cathedral of Pingliang, Gansu Province of China, the liturgy of episcopal ordination of the Reverend Anthony Li Hui, appointed by the Holy Father as coadjutor of Pingliang on 11 January 2021, took place. Bishop Li is the fifth Chinese bishop to be appointed and ordained under the Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops in China.”
The fifth bishop, appointed after the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China on the appointment of Bishops came into effect, was born in 1972 in Mei County, Shaanxi Province. He entered the Pingliang Diocesan Seminary in 1990 and graduated from the National Seminary of the Catholic Church in China. He has been a priest since 1996. Before his appointment as bishop, he served for many years in the Diocese of Beijing. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Chinese Literature at the People’s University in Beijing.
Belgian and German missionaries were active in the Pingliang region from 1910 until January 25, 1930, when the Pingliang Apostolic Prefecture was established and entrusted to the Spanish Capuchin Franciscans. The Prefecture was elevated to the rank of a diocese in 1950. Today, the diocese has approximately 12,000 baptized Catholics, with about twenty priests and 18 nuns of the Congregation of the Holy Family serving in 10 parishes and 11 chapels and mission stations.
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