SHANGHAI (Agencies): Bishop Shen Bin, who served as Bishop of Haimen in Jiangsu, was transferred and installed as the new bishop of the Diocese of Shanghai in an installation ceremony on April 4. Vatican News quoted Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, saying, “The Holy See had been informed a few days ago of the decision of the Chinese authorities” to transfer the bishop and “learned from the media of the installation this morning”.
Quoting Vatican sources, AsiaNews reported that the appointment was “unilateral” without papal approval.
According to the Sino-Vatican provisional agreement of 2018, later renewed in October 2020 and 2022, the choice of the new Chinese bishops should be shared by the Holy See and the Beijing authorities.
However, on 26 November 2022, the Vatican had denounced and protested for the first time the violation of the agreement in the appointment of Bishop John Peng Weizhao as auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Jiangxi, an ecclesiastically unapproved diocese.
Bishop Shen Bin has been serving the Diocese of Haimen with papal recognition since 2010. Shanghai’s bishopric had been vacant for 10 years.
Father Gianni Criveller commented in AsiaNews, saying, “We fear that this new episode is more evidence that the agreement with China does not work as the Holy See would like. We say this with regret and reluctance because we would really like the agreement to work. In fact, this is what the Holy Father wants and what Catholics loyal to him desire.”
“For the moment, I have nothing to say about the Holy See’s assessment of the matter” reacted Matteo Bruni over the new development.
