May 24th the World Prays for China

(24 May 08 - RV) Today the universal Church is gathered in prayer for China.

Churches in Spain, Venezuela, India this weekend are dedicating prayer and collections to aid the people of the nation as they struggle to piece together their lives after the devastating Sichuan earthquake two weeks ago.

Fides news agency reports that Chinese faithful l from the worst affected areas celebrated the World Day of Prayer in tents transformed into makeshift chapels, reciting the Rosary in front of an image of Our Lady of Sheshan.

The initiative was first announced last year by Pope Benedict XVI, in his Letter to the faithful of the Catholic Church in China.

In the letter the Holy Father dedicated the memorial of Our Lady Help of Christians to China, urging the faithful of the nation to renew their communion of faith in Christ, their fidelity to the Pope, and their prayers for unity.

Father Angelo Lazzarotti is an expert on Chinese affairs at the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, he spoke to us about the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan and it's importance to Christians in China:

Well Seshan is actually a small hill, well it is a hundred and fifty years more or less that a Church, a chapel has been established there. In the diocese of Shanghai the Jesuits bought a part of the land around the hill and they built a church on top of the hill that was in 1871, 73, dedicated to our Lady but at the middle of the hill there is another church that was built first and there were paths going up the hill which the way of the cross and points of prayer for the pilgrims walking up the hill. There were other shines around the country but this of Seshan was well known and it became a point of devotion and pilgrimage for many Catholics around the eastern part of China.