CHONGQING (Fides): Father Andrew Ding Yang was ordained as the new archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chongqing, Sichuan, China, on September 8 during a ceremony at St Joseph’s Cathedral.
According to the Holy See Press Office, Archbishop Ding was appointed by Pope Leo XIV on July 18 under the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China regarding the appointment of bishops.
He is the eighteenth Chinese bishop to be ordained under the agreement.
Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing, was the consecrator, with Bishop He Zeqing of Wanzhou; Bishop Luo Xuegang of Yibin, Sichuan; Bishop Cui Qingqi of Wuhan, Hubei; Bishop Xiao Zejiang of Guizhou; and Coadjutor Bishop Matthew Shen Xuebin of the Diocese of Beijing as co-consecrators.
Around 350 priests, religious sisters, seminarians, and lay faithful attended the ceremony.
Archbishop Yang was born on 16 September 1981 in Hechuan District, Chongqing. He attended Beijing Seminary from 2000 to 2006 and, after a year of pastoral training at St. Joseph’s Parish in Yuzhong [Chongqing], he was ordained a priest on 24 May 2007. He then 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. Between 2012 and 2014, he served as a formator at the National Theological Seminary in Beijing. In March 2014, he moved to Rome to study at the University of the Holy Cross, returning to China the following year. He later served as parish priest in Tongliang, Tongnan, Tongguanyi, and Jiulongpo, all within the Archdiocese of Chongqing.
Today, Chongqing has approximately 120,000 Catholics, served by about 30 priests, with 30 churches and 20 places of prayer. The archdiocese is also home to the Sisters of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who run a home for the elderly known as Ren Ai – Charity.
