by Marta Zhao
Chongqing – On Tuesday morning, September 8, the liturgical feast of the Holy Name of Mary, the Mass for the episcopal ordination of Father Andrew Ding Yang, the new Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chongqing in the Chinese Province of Sichuan, was celebrated at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Chongqing.
Pope Leo XIV appointed Andrew Ding Yang Archbishop of Chongqing on July 18, 2026, according to information released today by the Holy See Press Office, “having approved his candidacy within the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China” concerning the appointment of Chinese bishops.
With the episcopal appointment of Leo XIV and today’s episcopal ordination, the number of new Chinese Catholic bishops ordained in full communion with the Bishop of Rome under the framework of the Provisional Agreement has risen to 18. The agreement on the appointment of bishops was signed by the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China under Pope Francis on September 22, 2018. It was renewed for two-year periods in 2020 and 2022 and subsequently extended for four years in October 2024.
The process leading to the appointment and episcopal ordination of Paul Liu Honggang also took place entirely, from its earliest stages, during the pontificate of Pope Prevost.
Joseph Li Shan, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Beijing, presided over the celebration as consecrator. The co-consecrators were He Zeqing, Bishop of the Diocese of Wanzhou; Luo Xuegang, Bishop of the Diocese of Yibin, in Sichuan Province; Cui Qingqi, Bishop of the Diocese of Wuhan, in Hubei Province; Xiao Zejiang, Bishop of the Diocese of Guizhou; and Matthew Shen Xuebin, Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Beijing. Some 350 priests, religious women, seminarians and lay faithful attended the ceremony.
Andrew Ding Yang was born on September 16, 1981, in Hechuan District, Chongqing. From 2000 to 2006, he attended the Beijing Seminary. After one year of pastoral training at St. Joseph’s Parish in Yuzhong , he was ordained a priest on May 24, 2007. He subsequently served as assistant parish priest at the same parish.
From 2009 to 2011, he lived in Macau, where he studied theology at St. Joseph University. From 2012 to 2014, he served as a formator at the National Theological Seminary in Beijing. In March 2014, he moved to Rome, where he studied at the University of the Holy Cross and returned to China the following year. He subsequently served as parish priest in Tongliang, Tongnan, Tongguanyi and Jiulongpo, in the Archdiocese of Chongqing.
Today, Chongqing has around 120,000 faithful, served by about 30 priests, with 30 churches and 20 places of prayer. The Archdiocese is also home to sisters of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who run a home for the elderly known as “Ren Ai – Charity.”
The history of the Archdiocese of Chongqing is intertwined with some of the most important developments in the history of Catholicism in China: missionary evangelization, inculturation, the relationship between the Church and foreign powers, the growth of the Chinese clergy and the country’s profound social transformations.
The origins of the modern missionary evangelization of Sichuan Province date back to the 17th century. In 1696, the Apostolic Vicariate of Sichuan was established. On April 2, 1856, the Holy See divided the Apostolic Vicariate of Sichuan and established the Apostolic Vicariate of Southeastern Sichuan, the predecessor of the present-day Archdiocese of Chongqing. In 1860, it was renamed the Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Sichuan.
During this period, missionary activity was carried out primarily by missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society . A major city on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing was already an important political and commercial centre at the time. It therefore gradually became one of the main bases of Catholic missionary activity.
In 1924, the Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Sichuan officially took the name Apostolic Vicariate of Chongqing. In 1929, part of its northeastern territory was separated to establish the Apostolic Vicariate of Wanzhou. On April 11, 1946, Pope Pius XII established the ordinary ecclesiastical hierarchy in China, and the Apostolic Vicariate of Chongqing was elevated to the status of an archdiocese. It also became the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical Province of Sichuan.
During the second half of the 20th century, the Archdiocese of Chongqing experienced a prolonged period of difficulties in its ecclesial life.
The history of Chongqing is also closely linked to missionary figures such as Father Vincent Lebbe, who took the Chinese name Lei Mingyuan, a Belgian missionary of the Congregation of the Mission. Chongqing is also home to one of the most beloved shrines among Chinese Catholics, where Father Lebbe’s remains are preserved.
“I will go to China and die a martyr,” Vincent said when he was 11 years old. He kept his promise half a century later, when he died in Chongqing in 1940.
Father Vincent strongly believed that the Church in China should be led by Chinese themselves and that priests, bishops and Church leaders of Chinese origin needed to be formed. Father Lei is still remembered today as one of the most important figures in modern Chinese Catholicism.
His spirituality, his complete identification with the Chinese people, his commitment to justice and his creativity in promoting new forms of apostolate are among the most significant aspects of his legacy. Belgian Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenens, one of the leading figures of the Second Vatican Council, described him as “a precursor of the main orientations that would later emerge from the Council.”
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