Since the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement on the appointment of bishops, the Vatican has faced criticism from inside and outside the Church for failing to speak out against Chinese government oppression. Over a month after the Bishop Stephen Yang Xiangtai’s death on October 13, the Vatican newspaper has paid tribute to the prelate, who was arrested under Mao’s Communist regime in 1966, was sentenced to forced labor for nearly 15 years, and consecrated his successor secretly in 2011 in order to avoid a ceremony led by a bishop who had been consecrated illicitly.

Yang was arrested and imprisoned “because of his [Catholic] faith and fidelity to the Pope,” the newspaper reported. He “was a bishop much loved by the faithful, who remember him for strong fidelity to the Lord, kindness to everyone, simplicity of life, and constant dedication to his flock.”