VATICAN (SE): After leading the recitation of the “Regina Coeli” with visitors in St. Peter’s Square on May 22, Pope Francis reminded people to pray for Catholics in China on the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians on May 24, CNS reported.
Vatican News reported the pope as saying Mary, Help of Christians, “particularly dear to Catholics in China who venerate Mary, Help of Christians as their patroness in the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai, in many churches throughout the country, and in their homes.”
He noted that this “happy occasion” offers him the opportunity “to assure them once again of my spiritual closeness” and that he is “attentively and actively following the often complex life and situations of the faithful and pastors.”
The pope said, “I invite all of you to unite yourselves in this prayer so that the Church in China, in freedom and tranquillity, might live in effective communion with the universal Church, and might exercise its mission of proclaiming the gospel to everyone, and thus offer a positive contribution to the spiritual and material progress of society as well.”
In 2007, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI proclaimed May 24, the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, to be a World Day of Prayer for the Church in China.
