Thursday, May 24th is a day dedicated in a special way to the liturgical memorial
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, venerated with great devotion at the
Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai.
That’s what Pope Benedict said on Sunday after
praying the Regina Coeli in Saint Peter's Square adding how we can join in prayer
with all Catholics who are in China, so that they may announce with humility and joy
the Risen Christ, be faithful to his Church and the Successor of Peter and live their
daily life in a manner consistent with the faith we profess.
Mary, Virgin
most faithful, he concluded support the path of Chinese Catholics, render their prayer
them ever more intense and precious in the eyes of the Lord, and advance the affection
and the participation of the universal Church in the journey of the Church in China.
To
mark the Day of Prayer for the Church in China which coincides with this memorial
Veronica Scarisbrick speaks to Father Emmanuel Lim SJ about the figure of Matteo
Ricci in a feature which includes a passage from the diary of this charismatic
Jesuit whose memory still lives on in China today: "..the work of evangelisation ,
of making Christians should be carried on both in Peking and in the Provinces, following
methods both of a pacific nature and of cultural adaptation. Europeanism is to be
shunned."...