By Uyghur Times Staff | June 12, 2025
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV has made his first Chinese bishop appointment under the Vatican’s contested 2018 agreement with Beijing, naming Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou. The move signals continuity with Pope Francis’ controversial policy of engagement with China’s state-run church.
The Vatican praised both the bishop’s June 5 appointment and its subsequent recognition by Chinese authorities as a “fruit of dialogue” and a step toward unity in the Fuzhou diocese.
The 2018 deal, which remains secret, gave China a role in bishop selection while maintaining final papal authority. Critics, especially from conservative Catholic circles, have condemned the deal as a betrayal of China’s underground Catholics who remained loyal to Rome amid decades of persecution.
Tensions flared just before Pope Leo’s election, when Beijing unilaterally advanced two bishop candidates without papal consent, raising questions about the future of the agreement under the Church’s first American pope.
