Bishop Joseph Shen Bin, 52, the erstwhile Bishop of Haimen, was installed as Shanghai’s new bishop with no formal announcement from the Vatican, or even from his own diocese before the liturgy commenced.
In an unusual move, priests in Shanghai were sent last week invitations to the installation of a new bishop, who was not named on the invitation.
In an April 4 installation at the diocesan Cathedral of St. Ignatius, Bishop Shen, who is also the president of the state-sanctioned Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China, promised to lead the Shanghai diocese with “patriotism and love.”
One cleric in China told The Pillar Tuesday that local priests had expected Shen to be installed as their bishop – he said word of the appointment was “in the wind” among the city’s presbyterate in the days preceding the mysterious installation.
The cleric, who requested anonymity because of the possibility of government reprisal, said that Chen’s name was likely omitted from the invitation to avoid the possibility of protests against his installation.
Describing Bishop Shen as “a capable man, who believes the faith” the cleric said Shen “recognizes the reality of life in China means that if you want room to maneuver for the good of the faithful, you sometimes have to make compromises.”