Chinese Catholics urged to renew Church communion, fidelity to Pope

Pope Benedict XVI has urged Catholics in mainland China to renew their communion of faith in Christ and their fidelity to the Pope as they celebrated the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, who is venerated at Sheshan, near Shanghai.

A procession with the statue of Our Lady of Sheshan at the Sheshan Marian Shrine on May 23, the eve of the feast day.

He spoke about the Church in China on May 24, the feast of Our Lady of Sheshan, after celebrating Mass for 20,000 people in the town of Casino, north of Naples. The event was to mark the 65th anniversary of the rebuilding of the town and the nearby Abbey of Monte Cassino, founded by Saint Benedict, which were destroyed in World War II.

He recalled that in his 2007 letter to the Catholic Church in China, he designated May 24 as a day when Catholics worldwide would unite in prayer with and for the Church in China.

He added that he salutes “with great affection the Catholics in China, and I exhort them to renew on this day their communion of faith in Christ and of fidelity to the Successor of Saint Peter.”

His words echoed the exhortation he first made in his 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics, and reflected his ongoing concern that Catholics on the mainland should share the same faith in Christ and the same faithfulness to the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

He concluded his brief message by expressing the hope that “our common prayer may obtain an outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that the unity between all Christians, the Catholicity and the universality of the Church may become ever more visible and profound.”

As he spoke, more than 700 Chinese Catholics from across Italy were praying at a bilingual Chinese and Italian Mass at the Cathedral of Naples.

This was the second such gathering following the first gathering in Rome last year of Chinese Catholics living in Italy. During the recent Mass, lay Catholics including couples and children, Chinese priests, nuns and seminarians prayed together alongside members of missionary orders from Italy and other countries who have worked in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Archbishop of Naples and former Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, concelebrated the Mass with the two main chaplains of the Chinese Catholic community in Italy — Father Peter Cui Xingang, the national coordinator, and Father Paul Kong, assistant coordinator.

Speaking with “Avvenire,” the Italian Catholic daily, on May 23, Father Cui said there are an estimated 300,000 Chinese immigrants resident in Italy, among whom “the number of Catholics among them has grown in the last three years.”

The Chinese Catholic community in the country, he added, is very active, organizing Italian courses for Chinese immigrants, making hospital and prison visits, and providing charitable assistance though the Church’s Caritas centers.