5th Catholic bishop consecrated under China agreement
A Vatican spokesman confirmed July 28 that the fifth bishop to be created under the 2018 Vatican-China deal has been ordained.
Anthony Li Hui was appointed coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Pingliang by Pope Francis on January 11, according to spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Bruni said that Bishop Li was ordained in the Cathedral of Pingliang, in the province of Gansu, on July 28.
Pingliang, in north-central China, has a wider metropolitan population of more than two million people.
According to UCA News, the 49-year-old Bishop Li was consecrated by Archbishop Joseph Ma Yinglin of Kunming, president of the state-sanctioned Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China.
Bishops’ conference vice president Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai and Bishop Nicolas Han Jide of Pingliang were concelebrants.
Representatives of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a state-endorsed organisation founded in 1957, were also present.
Starting in 1998, Li worked at the secretariat office of the Chinese bishops’ conference and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association in Beijing.
Before his appointment as bishop, Li was secretary of the Chinese bishops’ conference.
Pope: World hunger ‘violates basic human rights’
Pope Francis described world hunger on Monday as “a crime that violates basic human rights”.
In a July 26 message to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the Pope called for a “new mindset” in the battle against malnutrition.
“We produce enough food for all people, but many go without their daily bread. This ‘constitutes a real scandal,’ a crime that violates basic human rights,” he said, quoting from his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti.
“Therefore, it is everyone’s duty to eradicate this injustice through concrete actions and good practices, and through bold local and international policies.”
The Pope sent the message to the UN chief at the start of the Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit in Rome. The event, held on July 26-28, is seeking to build momentum ahead of the summit in New York in September.
“We need a new mindset and a new holistic approach and to design food systems that protect the Earth and keep the dignity of the human person at the centre… and that feed the world today, without compromising the future,” Pope Francis said.
Cardinal Sarah undergoes robot-assisted surgery
Cardinal Robert Sarah, the retired prefect of the Vatican’s liturgy office, underwent robot-assisted surgery on his prostate earlier this month, according to a surgeon at the Italian hospital where the procedure took place.
The urological operation was performed with the help of the da Vinci robot, a technology in use since 2016 at the Great Metropolitan Hospital (GOM) in Reggio Calabria, a city on the southernmost point of the Italian peninsula.
The GOM’s health director and a leading surgeon confirmed to CNA July 29 that Cardinal Sarah had been operated on and that he was released from the hospital on July 27, after around 15 days in their care.
Salvatore Costarella said the procedure was to correct a problem with the prostate.
Doctors said in a press conference Wednesday that the surgery was successful and, thanks to the robot technology, was able to be carried out in a minimally invasive way.
Sarah, 76, was the most senior African prelate at the Vatican before his retirement as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in February.