China Ordains 18th Bishop Under Vatican Agreement

Father Andrew Ding Yang prepared for his ordination as archbishop of Chongqing on September 8 after years of service across parishes in the region. He was born on September 16 1981 in Hechuan District within the Chongqing municipality and entered the Beijing seminary in 2000. He completed his formation there in 2006 and was ordained a priest on May 24 2007 following a year at St Joseph Parish in Yuzhong Chongqing. Ding pursued further studies at the University of St Joseph in Macao from 2009 to 2011 and then served as a formator at the National Seminary of the Catholic Church in China in Beijing from 2012 to 2014. He moved to Rome in March 2014 for studies at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and returned to China in 2015. Upon his return he took up pastoral assignments as parish priest in Tongliang Tongnan Tongguanyi and Jiulongpo within the Archdiocese of Chongqing. Pope Leo XIV appointed him archbishop of Chongqing on July 28 and the ordination took place on September 8. This ordination marked the eighth episcopal ordination during Leo XIVs pontificate under the procedures of the bilateral agreement first signed in 2018. The agreement guides the selection and recognition of Catholic bishops in China and the see of Chongqing had remained vacant since March 26 2001. Other appointments approved by Leo XIV included Father Francis Xavier Duan Yongkun as coadjutor bishop of Bameng in Inner Mongolia on June 15 and Father Joseph Chang Yanfeng as bishop of Chifeng also in Inner Mongolia. Father Paul Liu Honggang was ordained bishop of Datong in Shanxi province on August 10. On September 12 2025 the Chinese government recognized two bishops from the underground Church. Bishop Joseph Ma Yanen formerly of Xiwanzi became auxiliary bishop of the new Diocese of Zhangjiakou and Bishop Augustine Cui Tai formerly of Xuanhua was named bishop emeritus of the same diocese. The process for Dings appointment unfolded entirely during Leo XIVs pontificate and continues a series of steps that have included the suppression of two older dioceses and the creation of Zhangjiakou as a suffragan see of Beijing.