Days before the week of prayer for Catholics in China began on May 23 and seminarians in the country were arrested for holding Sunday, several services without the permission of the country’s Communist authorities.
In 2007, then-Pope Benedict XVI published a lengthy letter to Catholics in China in which he designated May 24, the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, as an annual global day of prayer for the Catholic Church in China.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) asked that the entire week of May 23-30 be observed as a time of prayer for China, saying “We should ask Our Lady of Sheshan to protect all humanity and therefore the dignity of each and every person in China.”
“It is right that we should pray not only for the church but for all persons in the People’s Republic of China,” he said, voicing hope that China “continues to rise as a global power” and becomes “a force for good and a protector of the rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized in the world.”
Pope Francis in his May 23 Regina Coeli address gave Chinese Catholics a shout-out, congratulating them for the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, who he said “is invoked assiduously” by Chinese Catholic families.