Pilgrims gather in Sheshan for Pope's Day of Prayer for Church in China

(May 25, 20129 Thousands of pilgrims from across China gathered to pray at Our Lady of Sheshan Basilica of Shanghai on Thursday, May 24, the feast of Mary Help of Christians, anniversary of the Day of Prayer for the Church in China dedicated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. May 24 also marks the feast of the national Marian shrine. Despite a drizzle, Fr Thaddeus Ma Daqin, vicar general of Shanghai led a procession with the statue of Mary which concluded with a solemn Holy Mass concelebrated by 40 priests. More than 3,000 faithful were inside the basilica for the Mass.
In the past, Our Lady of Sheshan shrine used to draw up to 200,000 pilgrims on the feast day, from all over China. Since 2008, a year after the pope set aside that day as a Day of Prayer for the Church in China, the government has not allowed pilgrims from any diocese, except that of Shanghai, to visit the shrine in Sheshan. China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Pope in 1951, shortly after the officially atheist Communist Party took power. Worship is allowed only in the government-controlled Church known as the Catholic Patriotic Association, which does not recognize the Pope of Rome as their head and appoints its own priests and bishops. Those Catholics who continued to acknowledge the Pope became known as the “Underground Church,” and hence are harassed and persecuted. Strained relations have been aggravated by the Vatican's diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, which China claims as its renegade territory despite a split during civil war in 1949.