The Catholic Church in Wuhan in China will ordain a new bishop on Wednesday, September 8, Feast of the Nativity of Mary.
A report on the Catholic news site AsiaNews said Father Giuseppe Cui Qingqi will be ordained bishop at “8:08” in the morning at the Cathedral of St. Joseph.
The report said “several sources” confirmed the news.
Wuhan is under the Archdiocese of Hankou and its archiepiscopal see is the Cathedral of St. Joseph, in Hankou, Wuhan.
Since 1961, the archdiocese is a vacant “underground” diocese with no apostolic administrator. The city, however, witnessed the first ordination of two bishops, on April 13, 1958, without the approval of the Holy See.
The AsiaNews report said the consecration of a bishop for Wuhan “had long been hoped for.”
In 2007, Chinese authorities announced that they had chosen Father Joseph Shen Guo’an and support him as a candidate to be bishop. His ordination was set for June 9, 2011, until it was canceled without any explanation days before the date.
Father Shen continued to act as diocesan leader until he was transferred to another post in December 2012. He was then replaced by Father Cui as diocesan administrator.
Father Cui, a Franciscan of the Friars Minor, was born in 1964 in Changzhi (Shanxi), China, and was ordained a priest in 1991.
Aside from being diocesan administrator, he has been diocesan secretary and vicar general.
His “democratic” election as episcopal candidate took place on Sept. 27, 2020, said the AsiaNews report. Local church officials have submitted Father Cui’s name to the Vatican, added the report.
Father Cui’s ordination will be the fourth of its kind after the renewal in October last year of the Vatican’s agreement with China on episcopal appointments.
The first to be ordained under the deal was the bishop of Qingdao (Shandong), then the bishop of Hongdong-Linfen (Shanxi), and Msgr. Li Hui, who was ordained coadjutor bishop of Pingliang (Gansu) on July 28.