Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Taizhou (Agenzia Fides) - On Saturday 10 July Mgr Anthony Xu Jiwei, aged 75, with 25 years of priesthood, was ordained Bishop of Taizhou, in the province Zhejiang (mainland China). Since 1999 he had served as Diocesan Administrator and was approved by the Holy See for the office of Bishop of Linhai. The Chinese government authorities approved his ordination as a Bishop. The Mass of Ordination was presided by Bishop Joseph Li Mingsu of Qingdao, assisted by Bishop Joseph Zhao Fengchang of Liaocheng, Bishop Joseph Xu Honggen of Suzhou, and Bishop Joseph Han Yingjin of Sanyuan. All the above mentioned Bishops are in communion with the Holy See and are recognised by the Chinese government.
Mgr Xu was born in Shanghai, 2 April 1935. He entered Ningbo Seminary in 1948, and then went on to Xujiahui Seminary in (Shanghai) until 1958. Between 1960 and 1985, due to political events, he spent five years in prison and then several years of forced labour, including a period of six years teaching at a secondary school. The Bishop recalls that period as difficult, but also as a time of grace, which strengthened his faith and allowed him to experience in prayer that God loves him deeply and is with him constantly.
In 1985, he returned to Shanghai Seminary, where he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Ningbo, serving as parish priest. In 1999 he was moved to Taizhou, where he became diocesan administrator, while ministering in the parish of Jiaojiang. Bishop Xu had the opportunity to study a few years abroad, first in Korea and then in Europe.
About one thousand Catholics, some from Shanghai and Ningbo, took part in the Mass for the ordination of the Bishop, who is the second Ordinary of the diocese which had remained vacant since in 1962 following the death of Bishop Joseph Hou Joshan. This ecclesiastical circumscription has a community of about 6,000 Catholics, served by 15 priests, about ten sisters of the Congregation of Saint Teresa Servants of Charity. The diocese has 25 churches and chapels. Bishop Xu said he is aware that several challenges face the little diocese of Taizhou but he is confident that evangelisation will resume and that the Catholic community will grow. (Agenzia Fides 14/07/2010)
