(ZENIT News / Rome, 23.09.2024).- The second part of the Synod on Synodality will take place this October, the first part of which was held in October of last year. Monsignor Vincenzo Zhan Silu is one of Pope Francis’ invited guests. He is a Chinese Bishop who was excommunicated for having been ordained Bishop without a papal mandate. His excommunication has been lifted; the Holy See has recognized him and he will be present in the Vatican from October 2-27.
In fact, his name is on the list of the 368 members of the Synod appointed by the Supreme Pontiff, which was made known during a Holy See press conference on September 16.
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Zhan Silu, substituting Monsignor Anthony Yao Shun, Bishop of Jining, who attended the Synod last year. In regard to the reason for the change, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, Archbishop of Luxembourg and Relator General of the Synod on Synodality, said that “the Secretariat of State has given us the names, but we have no other information about this.”
It seems that the designation of Monsignor Zhan Silu, instead of Monsignor Yao Shun, came from official bodies of the Chinese Catholic community, controlled by the Beijing Authorities. Zhan Silu, 63, is Bishop of Mindong. He is one of the eight Prelates ordained illicitly that the Pope excommunicated, as the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China was not respected in the appointment of Bishops.
Zhan Silu was ordained Bishop on January 6, 2000 without the Pope’s mandate in a ceremony held in Beijing. Pope Francis lifted the excommunication after a Provisional Agreement reached on September 22, 2018 between China and the Vatican, an Agreement on the Vatican’s recognition of Bishops appointed by the Communist Authorities.
Monsignor Zhan Silu is Bishop in the province of Fujian, an area in China with a great Catholic presence, and where Monsignor Vincenzo Guo Xijin was unable to register in the official bodies controlled by the Party and who, in October 2020, according to the Holy See’s intention, should have supported Monsignor Zhan Silu as Auxiliary Bishop. Retired to a life of prayer, Monsignor Guo Xijin, 66, referred to himself in an open letter as “stupid” and “shameless,” unable to keep up with the times and with the style “of the Church in China and, directly, in our diocese.”
Later, the Vatican recognized the Ordination of the Bishops and confirmed them in their dioceses in the context of the current relations of the Church in China and the concessions the Holy Father has made to relieve the tensions with the Chinese Government.
