CHINA-VATICAN: RELIGION
At a ceremony at Pinganqiao Cathedral in Chengdu, Sichuan province during the feast of St Andrew on November 30, 2016, two Chinese bishops recognised by the Holy See were consecrated. Father Joseph Tang Yuange, 53, was ordained as bishop and Father Wang Xiaoxun was ordained as coadjutor bishop in the Ankang diocese in Shanxi province. The ceremony was chaired by Bishop Fang Xingyao, Chairman of the Communist Party-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, in the presence of Fathers Luo Xuegang from the Yibin diocese, He Zeqing of the Wanzhou diocese in Chongqing, Chen Gongao of Nanchong in Jiangxi and Xiao Zejiang of Guiyang in Guizhou province, who are all jointly recognised by the Holy See and Beijing. An excommunicated bishop, Lei Shiyin of Leshan in Sichuan, also made his way into the ordination. |