Beijing:

The Pope-appointed Bishop for the diocese of Zhengzhou, in the Chinese province of Henan, was consecrated on Thursday. In December last year, Pope Francis made the episcopal appointment of Father Taddeo Wang Yuesheng. With the installation of the new Bishop in Zhengzhou, the 70-year-old wait after the expulsion of the predecessor comes to an end. 

The appointment came within the framework of a provincial agreement signed between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China in 2018. Vatican news agency Fides said following the agreement there were no longer any illegitimate episcopal ordinations in China, that is, those that were celebrated without papal approval.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Catholic Church in China said that the Chairman of the Chinese Catholic Bishops Conference Bishop Shen Bin officiated the ceremony along with the Vice Chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and Shanghai Diocese Bishop Yang Yongqiang and a few other prelates.

The secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops Conference of China Father Yang Yu read out the letter of approval. The ceremony saw the participation of over 300 people, including more than 40 priests, nuns, and lay representatives from Chinese Catholic Churches and dioceses in the province.

The 58-year-old Bishop was ordained as a priest in 1993 and he has been serving as the parish priest in the Huiji District of Zhengzhou since December 2011. The press release said that Father Yuesheng was elected as the rector of the Diocese of Zhengzhou in 2013, and he was later elected as the bishop-elect of the Diocese of Zhengzhou in March 2022.