Dialogue is always preferable to confrontation, Cardinal Dolan said. ”[But] my gut also tells me that you can’t negotiate with these people. It could be extraordinarily counterproductive.”

Father Tong succeeds the current provincial, Stephen Chow, S.J., whom Pope Francis appointed as the new bishop of Hong Kong on May 17.

It was 100 years ago—on Sept. 12, 1921—when the Maryknoll Sisters assigned its first group of sisters to China, the order’s first mission.

A new bishop has been installed in China’s Wuhan Diocese, making him the latest to be ordained under a deal between the Vatican and China.

While the Holy See continues to dialogue with the Chinese government, the church is proud of Catholics who have held on to their faith in the country, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Father Anthony Li Hui is the fifth Chinese bishop appointed under the terms of a Vatican-China agreement signed in 2018 and renewed in 2020, the Vatican press office said.