Andrea Ding Yang ordained Archbishop of Chongqing under Holy See–China deal

On September 8, 2026, Andrea (Andrew) Ding Yang was ordained Archbishop of Chongqing at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Vatican News and Agenzia Fides reported. Vatican News said Pope Leo XIV appointed him on July 28 after approving his candidacy within the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China. This brief records the appointment and the framework used. It is not an endorsement of the 2018 agreement.

Ding Yang was born September 16, 1981, in Hechuan District, Chongqing. Vatican News said he studied at the Beijing seminary, was ordained a priest in 2007 after pastoral training at Saint Joseph Parish in Yuzhong, later studied in Macao and at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, and served parish posts in the Chongqing archdiocese. Fides said Archbishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing was the consecrator and that about 350 priests, religious, seminarians, and lay faithful attended. Fides and the National Catholic Register both described the new ordinary as about the 18th bishop ordained under the 2018 agreement, which has been renewed. The Register said the Chongqing see had been vacant since March 26, 2001.

The agreement remains a contested process for appointing bishops in China. This brief does not treat the rite as settling that debate.