Another bishop in China consecrated under deal with Vatican

Father Ignatius Ding Zuyao was consecrated on Thursday, Oct. 15, as bishop of Haimen in eastern China, a diocese that had lacked a bishop for more than three years.

Zuyao is the ninth Chinese bishop consecrated under Pope Leo XIV following procedures established by the provisional agreement between China and the Holy See governing bishop appointments. The pontiff appointed Zuyao bishop of Haimen on Aug. 24, having approved his candidacy under the agreement.

Zuyao’s consecration, announced by the Vatican on Thursday, also highlights a pattern in which the Vatican does not announce episcopal consecrations in China until the day they occur. He is also the 19th bishop to be selected under the Vatican-China deal.

However, some of the Chinese bishops Leo appointed were not immediately recognized by the Chinese government. Two of the bishops had already been consecrated and were part of the so-called underground Church — the Catholic community not officially recognized by Chinese authorities. The communist government later recognized both, thereby regularizing their ecclesiastical and civil status.

A decade of pastoral work Zuyao was born in August 1986 in Qidong, Jiangsu…