More on the Sunday killing of a man in a Catholic Church in Istanbul on Sunday, January 28: https://english.katholisch.de/artikel/50727-victim-in-catholic-church-in-istanbul-was-not-a-christian?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
There seems to be a bit of positive news from China as we have read in recent days, including today, with the appointment and installation of 3 new Catholic bishops. There has been a lot of criticism since the September 22, 2018 agreement signed between the Holy See and China about the appointment of bishops (and renewed in 2020 and 2022).
Basically, the communist Chinese government (PCC) was allowed to name the men they wanted as bishops but the Pope does have the right to disagree with the choice. Full disclosure, I have been one of the main critics of this agreement for reasons I have explained many times in this column and on Facebook.
I assume there was a quid pro quo in each of these recent cases. Is there room to feel positive that three new bishops will minister well to the Catholics in China and also be (allowed to be) active evangelizers?
Acts of the Apostles (at the Ascension): “But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
I am hopeful but also a realist.
Following is the news about today’s consecration of the new bishop of Shaowu. After that are links to the two stories about the other new Chinese bishops.
I think Pope Francis’ general audience catechesis on wrath is so important today. Wrath, ire, anger, rage, outrage, indignation, call it what you will but there is so much wrath in the world today. Look at social discourse. Look at political parties. Look at some posts on the Internet. Let’s listen to and reflect on what Francis said.
CHINA: CONSECRATION OF THE NEW BISHOP OF SHAOWU
Fr. Pietro Wu Yishun has been consecrated as the new Bishop of Shaowu (Minbei) in the Chinese province of Fujian, taking place according to the framework of the Provisional Agreement.
On Wednesday, 31 January, the new bishop of Shaowu (Minbei) in the Chinese province of Fujian was consecrated.
Father Pietro Wu Yishun was appointed by Pope Francis on 16 December 2023.
The appointment was announced on Wednesday by the Holy See Press Office following his episcopal consecration, as set out in the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.
Bishop Pietro Wu Yishun was born on 7 December 1964. He was ordained a priest on 15 August, 1992, for the Diocese of Xiamen.
Later sent to Minbei, he served there as a pastor, holding various roles, including being the parish priest of Nanping and responsible for the Apostolic Prefectures of Shaowu and Jian’ou.
Catholic community in Fujian province
The consecration liturgy of the new bishop, reported by the Vatican’s Fides news agency, took place in the Chengguan parish of the Jianyang district, dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, in the city of Nanping (Fujian province).
Bishop Giuseppe Li Shan of Beijing presided over the consecration. Three other Chinese bishops, around eighty priests from various dioceses in China, and over 360 lay faithful participated in the liturgy.
The life of the ecclesial community in the diocese of Shaowu (Minbei), according to Fides, is woven with the ordinary gestures of catechism, liturgies, prayers, charitable works, and the succession of months dedicated each year to St. Joseph, Mary, the Sacred Heart, and the Rosary.
Churches of ancient origin are restored and recovered, and pastoral initiatives are shared according to the priorities suggested by the Pope.
Thus, the diocesan parishes celebrated specific initiatives during the Pauline Year, proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, and the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, announced by Pope Francis.
Prayers were offered in the diocesan parishes for the success of the Olympics and the end of the pandemic. In the face of earthquakes and natural disasters, funds and relief goods are collected for the affected populations.
During the Year of Mercy, concluded Fides, the diocesan community designated two ancient churches, built more than 110 years ago, as sanctuaries with Holy Doors to pass through, thus living communion with the universal Church and the Successor of Peter.
POPE FRANCIS: “WRATH, A PARTICULARLY DARK VICE”
Continuing his weekly catechesis on virtues and vices, Pope Francis opened today’s general audience by explaining, “it is time to reflect on the vice of wrath. It is a particularly dark vice, and it is perhaps the easiest to detect from a physical point of view. The person dominated by wrath finds it difficult to hide this impulse: you can recognize it from the movements of his body, his aggressiveness, his laboured breathing, his grim and frowning expression.”
“In its most acute manifestation, ” he continued, “wrath is a vice that concedes no respite. If it is born of an injustice suffered (or believed to be suffered), often it is unleashed not against the offender, but against the first unfortunate victim. There are men who withhold their rage in the workplace, showing themselves to be calm and composed, but at home they become unbearable for the wife and children. Wrath is a pervasive vice: it is capable of depriving us of sleep, of barring the way to reason and thought.” (Vatican photos)
One of the results of wrath, said the Holy Father, is that “it destroys human relationships. It expresses the incapacity to accept the diversity of others, especially when their life choices diverge from our own. It does not stop at the misconduct of one person, but throws everything into the cauldron: it is the other person, the other as he or she is, the other as such, who provokes anger and resentment. One begins to detest the tone of their voice, their trivial everyday gestures, their ways of reasoning and feeling.”
Pope Francis noted that “Wrath makes us lose lucidity, doesn’t it? Because one of the characteristics of wrath, at times, is that sometimes it fails to mitigate with time. In these cases, even distance and silence, instead of easing the burden of mistakes, magnifies them. For this reason, the Apostle Paul – as we have heard – recommends to Christians to face up to the problem straight away, and to attempt reconciliation: “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph 4:26). It is important that everything dissipate immediately, before sundown. If some misunderstanding arises during the day, and two people can no longer understand each other, perceiving themselves as far apart, the night cannot be handed over to the devil.!
Importantly, the Pope also explained that “the passions are to some extent unconscious: they happen, they are life experiences. We are not responsible for the onset of wrath, but always for its development. And at times it is good for anger to be vented in the right way. If a person were never to (feel) anger, if a person did not become indignant at an injustice, if he did not feel something quivering in his gut at the oppression of the weak, it would mean that the person was not human, must less a Christian.
Francis ended by noting that “holy indignation exists, which is not wrath but an inner movement, a holy indignation. Jesus knew it several times in His life (cf. Mk 3.5): He never responded to evil with evil, but in His soul, He felt this sentiment, and in the case of the merchants in the Temple, He performed a strong and prophetic action, dictated not by wrath, but by zeal for the house of the Lord (cf. Mt 21:12-13). We must distinguish well: zeal, holy indignation, is one thing; wrath, which is bad, is another.”
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