(Jinan, Shandong Province – February 22, 2024) On January 29, Pope Francis abolished an apostolic prefecture in mainland China and established the Diocese of Weifang. The consecration ceremony for the newly appointed bishop of the diocese, Father Anthony Sun Wenjun, took place on January 29. This comes just five days after the consecration of Bishop Wang Yuesheng on January 25, marking another bishop appointment approved by the Vatican and consecrated in China.
On January 29, Father Anthony Sun Wenjun, 53 years of age, was consecrated as the Bishop of Weifang City in Shandong Province. The ceremony took place at a Church in Yidu County, Qingzhou, Shandong.
According to the government-approved Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, Bishop John Fang Xingyao, the honorary chairman of the association and the Bishop of Linyi Diocese, presided over the ceremony in Qingzhou. Co-consecrators included Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang of Zhoucun and Bishop Joseph Zhang Xianwang of Jinan. Over 300 people attended the consecration Mass, including 44 priests.
The official website of the Catholic Church of China continues its practice of avoiding any discussion about the role and involvement of the Vatican in the process of appointing bishops in China. The website only mentions the introduction of bishop candidates on August 26, 2022.
According to the Holy See, the decision to erect the new diocese in Weifang and appoint its first bishop was made in April 2023. The consecration and bishop appointment of Anthony Sun Wenjun were conducted within the framework of the interim agreement signed between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.
These indications suggest a new cooperative intention between the Vatican and Beijing on the crucial issue of bishop appointments. The Vatican had previously criticized Beijing authorities for unilaterally making bishop transfers without following the spirit of the agreement signed by both parties in 2018.
Sun Wenjun was born in November 1970, with the baptismal name Anthony. He studied at the Sheshan Seminary in Shanghai from 1989 to 1994 and was ordained a priest at the Xishiku Church in Beijing in 1995. From 2005 to 2007, he engaged in pastoral services in Shandong Province. He pursued further studies in Ireland from 2007 to 2008 before returning to Weifang to fulfill his priestly duties.
The Holy See Press Office stated, “With the desire to promote the pastoral care of Lord’s flock, and to attend better to its spiritual welfare, on 20 April 2023, the Supreme Pontiff Francis decided to suppress in Continental China the apostolic prefecture of Yiduxian, which was erected on 16 June 1931 by Pope Pius XI, taking territory from the apostolic vicariate of Zhifu (present-day diocese of Yantai), and at the same time to erect the new diocese of Weifang, as a suffragan of Jinan, province of Shandong, with its episcopal see in the Cathedral Church of Christ the King, located in Qingzhou, city of Weifang.”
Pope Francis renamed it as the Diocese of Weifang, with the ecclesiastical boundaries of the diocese based on the existing city divisions. The ecclesiastical boundaries of the new diocese encompasses four municipal development zones and eight counties within a prefecture-level city in Shandong Province, with a population of over 9 million people. The ecclesiastical boundaries of the Weifang Diocese conforms to that of the administrative area of Weifang City, covering a total area of 16,167 square kilometers and a resident population of 9,386,705 people, including approximately 6,000 Catholic faithful, served by 10 priests, and 6 nuns.
The newly erected Weifang Diocese, originally established in 1931 as the apostolic prefecture of Yidu County, has a historical background as a French Franciscan missionary territory. Since 2008, the diocese has been vacant in terms of a bishop, but pastoral activities have continued uninterrupted.
Over the decades since the Chinese Communist Party came to power and began redefining diocesan boundaries, the delineation of diocesan boundaries has been a contentious and negotiated area between the Holy See and China.
