Let it never be said that prayers aren’t heard. 

On Friday, before a crowd of hundreds of local Catholics and a number of government officials, Fr. Joseph Li Shan – former rector of Beijing’s seminary – was ordained Bishop of Beijing.  The ceremony took place in the 400-year-old Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

In August, Apostles of Prayer prayed for the Church in China, that it might grown in unity and visible communion with the Pope. 

Since 1952, there has been tension between the Catholics of Communist China and the Vatican.  Though these relations have improved over the past twenty years, division among Chinese Catholics remains.  Of the 13 million Catholics in China, about five million belong to the party-controlled Chinese Catholic  Patriotic Association (CCPA).  Meanwhile, eight million Catholics belong to the Vatican-supported “Underground Church.”  Pope Benedict XVI hopes to restore communication with the Chinese government. 

Bishop Li replaces Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan, who died in April.  Bishop Fu Tieshan served Beijing as a CCPA bishop for 30 years.  His loyalties to the Communist party have created division in the diocese.

Though Bishop Li was appointed by the Chinese government, he was also approved by Pope Benedict XVI.  L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, reported that this ordination – as well as the ordination of Coadjutor Bishop Paul Xiao Zejiang of Guizhou earlier in September – was a positive step towards unity between the Chinese government and Rome.  Both ordinations were carried out with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI.

The very fact that L’Osservatore Romano mentioned the ordination implies Vatican approval.  According to UCA News, this is the first time in over 50 years that the Vatican newspaper has reported on a newly ordained bishop in mainland China.

Fr. James Kubicki, S.J., National Director for the Apostleship of Prayer, is very encouraged by the ordination.  “So often, we pray for certain intentions and wonder if they will be answered.  This is an obvious example of just how efficacious prayer can be.”

These recent ordinations come in the wake of the Holy Father’s “Letter to the Church in China,” in which he called for “a respectful and open dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese Bishops on one hand, and the governmental authorities on the other.”  Such cooperation, he wrote, would “prove beneficial to the Catholic community and to social cohesion.”