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• Report: At least 10 underground bishops have been consecrated in China since 2018 (Catholic World Report)
  A Chinese bishop said that at least ten bishops have been secretly consecrated in China’s Fujian province since the 2018 Sino-Vatican provisional agreement on episcopal appointments.

  Anthony Clark, PhD, professor of Chinese History at Whitworth University, wrote:

  During an animated and candid discussion with a Chinese bishop who is unaffiliated with the Patriotic Association (anonymous to protect his well-being), our chat began with the “terrible things happening to Catholics in China, especially in Fujian.” After the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement was codified between the Holy See and China’s government, Fujian experienced what the bishop has defined as “a state of emergency.”
  
  The faithful of the underground community have grown continually fearful that, as government influence over the bishops increases, “the integrity of the Catholic faith will suffer.” To “assure the survival of China’s Church,” new bishops have been “secretly consecrated.” The number is unknown, but he suggested that “at least ten new bishops” were ordained for the underground community there. This proliferation of surreptitious consecrations, the bishop informed me, represents only Fujian province; he did not discuss other areas of China.

• Portugal's leading prelates meet with Pope (Agência ECCLESIA)
  The president, vice president, and secretary of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference met with Pope Leo on August 27 for 35 minutes.

  “We expressed to the Holy Father our communion with the Church in all the dioceses of Portugal, our desire to stand with him and accompany him, and we also renewed the invitation we had previously extended to him to visit Portugal when it is opportune, as soon as possible,” said Bishop Virgilio do Nascimento Antunes of Coimbra, the president of the episcopal conference. “It was a very friendly, very fraternal, very brotherly dialogue.”

• Pontiff, leading Argentine prelates discuss upcoming papal visit (Conferencia Episcopal Argentina)
  The president and secretary-general of the Argentine Episcopal Conference met with Pope Leo XIV on August 27.

  “The meeting took place in a cordial and affable atmosphere and provided an opportunity to discuss various aspects of the life of the Church in Argentina, as well as to converse about preparations for the Holy Father’s visit to the country,” the bishops’ conference said in a statement.

  “During the audience, the Pope expressed his enthusiasm for the trip and demonstrated that he was well-informed about the various options currently under consideration for its organization,” the statement continued. “In this context, particular emphasis was placed on the desire for the visit to have an eminently pastoral character and to have an impact that extends beyond the days of the trip itself, bearing fruit for the life of the Church and also for Argentine society.”

  The Pontiff is scheduled to visit Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru in November; visits to Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Luján are planned in Argentina.