HONG KONG (UCAN): Father Anthony Li Hui was ordained coadjutor bishop of The Diocese of Pingliang, Gansu province, in northwestern China on July 28. The 49-year-old is the fifth bishop to be ordained under the China-Vatican provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops, signed in 2018 and renewed in 2020 [Sunday Examiner, 1 November 2020].
Vatican News said that Pope Francis appointed Bishop Li as coadjutor on 11 January 2021. He eventually will succeed Bishop Nicholas Han Jide, who is 81-years-old and has led the diocese since 1999.
Born in 1972 in Shaanxi province, Bishop Li studied at the Beijing National Seminary and was ordained a priest in 1996, America magazine reported.
The ordination took place at the Cathedral of Pingliang, during a ceremony presided over by Bishop Joseph Ma Yinglin of Kunming, president of China’s state-sanctioned Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China [BCCCC] and concelebrated with Bishop Han and Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai of Chengde, vice president of the BCCCC.
Bishop Joseph Han Zhihai of Lanzhou, together with some 200 Catholics, including 30 priests, 20 nuns and representatives from the BCCCC and Gansu province, joined the ceremony, according to a report on the BCCCC website.
Representatives from the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association also attended the event, it said.
Father Yang Yu, deputy secretary-general of the BCCCC, read out the papal document of approval during the ceremony, the report said.
