Diocese of Shanghai Dioecesis Sciamhaevensis 天主教上海教区 |
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St. Ignatius Cathedral |
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Location | |
Country | China |
Statistics | |
Population - Total |
Statistics Missing [1] |
Information | |
Rite | Latin Rite |
Cathedral | St. Ignatius Cathedral, Xujiahui 圣依纳爵主教座堂(徐家汇天主教堂) |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Benedict XVI |
Bishop | Fan Zhongliang |
Coadjutor | Jin Luxian |
Auxiliary Bishop | Xing Wenzhi |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Shanghai (Latin: Dioecesis Sciamhaevensis; Chinese: 天主教上海教区) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Municipality of Shanghai, China. It was erected on December 13, 1933 as the Apostolic Vicariate of Shanghai by Pope Pius XI, and was later elevated to the rank of a diocese on April 11, 1946 by Pope Pius XII. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Nanking.
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The diocese's motherchurch and thus seat of its bishop is St. Ignatius Cathedral; it also houses a minor basilica in Sheshan.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII appointed the bishop of Suzhou, Ignatius Gong Pingmei, bishop of Shanghai. In 1955, he was arrested and in 1960 given a life sentence. in the same year, Aloysius Zhang Jiashu, S.J. was consecrated illicitly and ordained bishop of Shanghai by the Patriotic Church. Bishop Zhang died in 1988 at the age of 96. At the same time, bishop Gong Pinmei (since 1979 cardinal in pectore) left Shanghai to go into exile to the USA, where he lived until his death in 2000. Zhang was succeeded by his auxiliary bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian (b. 1916) of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Jin had been consecrated illicitly - that is, without the Papal mandate - as Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai in January 1985 (together with Li Side), and consecrated - again, illicitly - as the full bishop in 1989. During the late 1990s or early 2000s, Jin quietly reconciled with the Pope, and is regarded the coadjutor of the underground bishop of Shanghai Joseph Fan Zhongliang (who is suffering from Alzheimers) and therefore as the de jure bishop of Shanghai. In 2005, he consecrated Monsignor Giuseppe Xing Wenzhi as the Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai in a ceremony approved by the Pope, and attended by Vatican representatives. Bishop Xing is to succeed both Archbishops, Jin and Fan to remove the split between Underground and Patriotic Church.
See source:[2]