Shanghai Bishop Shen approved by Pope Francis as Vatican chides China for violation of pact
- Pope Francis has named Bishop Joseph Shen Bin to head the vacant Shanghai diocese, the Vatican announced
- China had already moved Shen from Jiangsu province in an apparent violation of a bilateral pact earlier this year
Pope Francis has approved a new bishop of Shanghai as the Vatican chided China for transferring him there without consultation, in violation of bilateral accords.
A Vatican statement on Saturday said the pope had named Bishop Joseph Shen Bin to head the vacant Shanghai diocese.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, said in an interview issued separately that it had not been consulted when Shen was moved to Shanghai from the diocese of Haimen, in Jiangsu province.
Parolin said the unilateral move went against “the spirit of dialogue and collaboration” stipulated in a landmark 2018 accord on the naming of bishops.
Conservative Catholics have criticised the secret accord as a sell-out to communist China, but the Vatican has defended it as an imperfect means to have some form of dialogue with the authorities for the good of Chinese Catholics.
The pope had decided to approve Shen “for the greater good” of the Shanghai diocese and because Shen was an “esteemed pastor,” Parolin said in the interview with internal Vatican media outlets.
