Fr Lombardi: Day of Prayer for Church in China

"The Pope’s latest appeal to all the faithful for the Day of Prayer for the Church in China, on May 24^th, should be understood for what it is meant to be: that is, above all, an appeal for prayer. The Pope believes in the power of prayer and invites us to be “confident that, through prayer we can do something very real” for the Church in China.
Over twenty years ago, while I was in China for several days, I had the opportunity to celebrate a very moving Eucharist with several other priests in one of the rooms of a family’s house. Afterwards an elderly priest asked me one question in French: “How is the health of the Supreme Pontiff?” In those days Internet still didn’t exist and the Chinese media certainly didn’t talk about the Pope… so I suddenly realised with just how much loyalty and love Chinese Catholics had for years continued to live and pray in spiritual union with the Pope and the Church of Rome, and I was very moved.
So the Pope talks about the importance of this union and thus invites us to meditate and to share in it by addressing ourselves to the Lord through “Mary, Help of Christians”, as she is venerated by the Chinese in the famous Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai. The Pope says that Chinese Catholics “have a right to our prayers, they need our prayers”. We should pray all the more intensely, precisely because the situation of the Church in China today is marked by suffering and pressures that are contrary to union with the Church of Rome."