Vatican Says It Learned of Installation of New Shanghai Bishop ‘from the Media’

ROME — The Vatican has asserted that it gave no approval for the installation of the new bishop of Shanghai, China, and only learned of the incident “from the media.”

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, said that the Holy See was informed several days ago of Beijing’s decision to transfer Bishop Joseph Shen Bin to Shanghai but only learned of the bishop’s installation “from the media.”

“For the moment,” Bruni said, “I have nothing to say about the Holy See’s assessment of the matter.”

The affair marks the second time that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has flagrantly violated its 2018 agreement with the Vatican on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China, which stipulated a bilateral process.

On Tuesday, Bishop Shen Bin was installed as the new bishop of Shanghai, having been appointed by the CCP-controlled Council of Chinese Bishops, an organization of which Shen himself is the head.

At his installation ceremony, Shen pledged to continue adhering to the CCP’s principles of independence and self-administration and the campaign of “Sinicizing” Catholicism in China.

Vatican sources said that Shen’s appointment was “unilateral,” and was made without the pope’s approval.

The former bishop of Shanghai, Bishop Ma Daqin, has been under house arrest in Sheshan Seminary since 2012 in punishment for his resignation from the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

Last November, the Holy See expressed its “surprise and regret” over a similar unilateral decision by the CCP to demote Yujiang Bishop John Peng Weizhao to “Auxiliary Bishop of Jiangxi.”

The Vatican message at the time noted that the relocation of Bishop Peng did not take place “in accordance with the spirit of dialogue” existing between the Vatican and the CCP.