The Guangzhou diocese yesterday ordained 43-year-old Joseph Gan
Junqiu as the bishop to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his
predecessor six years ago.
The ceremony was held at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in
Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, with about
1,000 people - mainly Catholics - in attendance.
Bishop John Fang Xingyao from Linyi diocese in Shandong Province
presided over the ordination, according to Liu Bainian,
vice-president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
Gan was elected bishop by 36 of the 39 priests and nuns from the
Guangzhou diocese, as well as representatives of church followers
last November. The Chinese Catholic Bishops College approved the
election earlier this year.
"Gan enjoys respect in the diocese and is easygoing with
followers," Liu said.
Gan's appointment came just days after another bishop, Francis
Lu Shouwang, was consecrated in Yichang, Hubei Province, on
Friday.
Gan and Lu were classmates at a seminary in Wuhan, Hubei, in the
1980s and represent a younger generation of Catholic priests in the
country.
Responding to some overseas media reports that the Vatican
supported the ordination of the two bishops, Liu told China
Daily: "We welcome the Vatican's attitude. It signals progress
in our relationship."
Liu said he hopes the Sino-Vatican relationship continues to
advance "in a positive direction".
Gan is the fourth bishop ordained this year in China. Joseph Li
Shan was ordained bishop of Beijing diocese, and Paul Xiao Zejiang
as coadjutor of Guizhou diocese in September.
The bishops college has received applications to fill vacant
bishoprics from other dioceses, and Liu said Gan "will probably not
be the last bishop ordained this year".
Liu said earlier that the Chinese Catholic society is speeding
up the process of selection and ordination of young bishops to
serve dioceses which have been without bishops for a long time or
to replace older bishops.
The Chinese mainland has 5 million Catholics in 97 dioceses, of
which 40 do not have bishops.
In another development, the number of Bibles - with
both the old and the new testaments - printed in the country is set
to exceed 50 million this month, according to Zhang Liwei, deputy
general secretary of the Nanjing-based Christian Amity Foundation
which operates the country's sole Bible printing
house.
The Chinese Christian Society prints the largest number of
Bibles in the world, Rev Cao Shengjie, president of the
China Christian Council, said earlier.
The Amity Printing House had printed about 43 million
Bibles in Chinese and eight ethnic minority languages to
serve the country's 16 million Christians by November.
In addition, under a partnership with the United Bible Societies
(UBS), the house has also printed 7 million for readers in more
than 30 countries since the 1990s.
The UBS recently decided to renew the contract with the Amity
Foundation for another 10 years, Zhang told China
Daily.
With a new production line coming into operation next year,
Amity will rank as one of the largest Bible printing
houses in the world with annual printing volume raised from the
current 8 million to 12 million Bibles after 2008.
(China Daily, December 5, 2007)