HONG KONG (UCAN): Father Peter Liu Genzhu was ordained bishop of Hongdong (Linfen), in Shanxi province, China, on 22 December 2020.
The ordination, the second since the renewal of the 2018 Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China regarding episcopal appointments (Sunday Examiner, 1 November 2020), comes just a month after Bishop Thomas Chen Tianhao was ordained for Qingdao, Shandong, on 23 November 2020 (Sunday Examiner, 6 December 2020).
The ordination of 54-year-old Bishop Liu was celebrated at the Catholic church in Hongdong County Square, according to the official website of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC) and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).
The consecration was presided over by Bishop Paul Meng Ningyou of Taiyuan, deputy director of the provincial CCPA. Other concelebrants included Bishop Peter Wu Junwei of Yuncheng, Bishop Peter Ding Lingbin of Changzhi and Bishop Paul Ma Cunguo of Shuozhou.
At the ceremony, Father Yang Yu, deputy secretary general of the Council of Chinese Bishops, announced the mandate of Bishop Liu on behalf of the BCCCC in an approval letter dated December 16 in which papal approval of the candidate was noted.
About 63 priests joined the celebration along with 200 seminarians, nuns and Catholics from dioceses across the province.
Bishop Liu succeeds Bishop Joseph Sun Yuanmo, who died in 2006 after a long illness.
Born in 1966 in Hongdong, Bishop Liu graduated from the Shaanxi Catholic Theological and Philosophical Seminary in Xian in 1991 and was ordained a priest in the same year. He was appointed vicar general of the Diocese of Lifen in 2010 and was a deputy director of the provincial CCPA.
Episcopal candidates undergo a process of election from the local Church and the selections are then recognised by Chinese authorities and approved and appointed by Pope Francis, a source explained on December 23. The system is expected to become the normal practice for bishop appointments in China.
Under the provisional agreement, the election result is communicated to the Holy See and only after an investigation can the decision be approved and an appointment made by the pope.
The Bishop Liu’s appointment of was confirmed in November, a month after the renewal of the Vatican-China provisional agreement.
