Our Lady of Fatima warned us that if Her requests were not heeded, the errors of Communism would spread throughout the world. See "Why Pope Francis consecrated his Pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima", posted here yesterday.
Nowhere in the world has the truth of this prophecy been revealed than in China, whose Communist régime persecutes Holy Mother Church (and other Christians) to an extent unmatched even in Muslim countries. This is in spite of the ostpolitik carried on by three successive Vatican Secretaries of State: Cardinals Casaroli, Sodani and the disgraced Bertone. See "How the Vatican sold out to Communism".
The Communists stop short of nothing, including torture and imprisonment, to force Catholics to renounce their allegiance to the Holy See and join the schismatic Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which they set up after the revolution of 1949. But the true Catholic Church, in union with Rome, persists underground. See "Cardinal Zen: Vatican appeasement hurts true Church in China".
One of the things the Communists do to discourage and intimidate true believers is to keep them away from the Marian shrine at Sheshan, near Shanghai. Chinese Catholics traditionally make a pilgrimage Sheshan on May 24th, the feast day of Our Lady of Sheshan, a day set aside by Pope Benedict XVI for prayer for the Church in China.
Last year and this, pilgrimages are forbidden! The shrine may be visited only by locals, and no special ceremonies are permitted. But that shouldn't stop us -- both Chinese and non-Chinese -- from praying for our persecuted co-religionists and the liberation of the true Church in China.
Yesterday, Pope Francis suggested the following prayer:
Our Lady of Sheshan, in their everyday struggles, sustain the commitment of all those in China, so that they may continue to believe, to hope, to love, and so they may never fear to speak of Jesus to the world and of the world to Jesus. Mary, Virgin most faithful, support Chinese Catholics. Make their commitments, which are not easy, ever more precious in the eyes of the Lord and help the affection and the participation of the Church in China to grow in the path of the universal Church. +
Even if you're not Catholic, or not even Christian, you can pray for all those behind "the Bamboo Curtain" who do not enjoy the freedom of religion that we take for granted. Please do so.
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