Archbishop adds voice to global prayer campaign for China

 The Archdiocese of Vancouver is throwing its support behind a global prayer effort next week for the persecuted and repressed in China.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller and Chinese Ministry coordinator Father Paul Chu are asking Vancouver Catholics to add their prayers to the Global Prayer for China campaign launched by a coalition of lay Christians from six continents.

“I welcome this opportunity from the Global Prayer for China to pray for those facing persecution in China,” said Archbishop Miller.

“I invite the faithful of the Archdiocese of Vancouver to unite their prayers with this effort, putting their hope and trust in Our Lady Help of Christians.”

According to Father Chu, the religious and political situation in China is quite complex. It’s impossible to paint the whole country with one brush, or even to see the full picture through the limited lens of Chinese or Western media, both of which operate with their own agendas, he said.

“China is a big country and the central policy from the central government, when they channel down to villages, towns, and cities where they have a mandate to govern the church there, there is a whole variation about how harshly or easily they implement the policy,” he said.

“Sometimes they exist on good terms,” and “sometimes the government will come to take down your cross or shut your door or put you in jail.”

Father Chu hopes the week of prayer will be seen as a uniting, not a polarizing, force for people who around the world pray together for the Church in China.

“If there is persecution, we pray for the end of it. If there is less persecution, we pray for more freedom and respect for the wishes of freedom of religion for the people.”

The campaign runs May 23-30, which includes May 24, the feast of Our Lady of Help of Christians. In Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s 2007 letter to the Church in the People’s Republic of China he designated May 24 as an annual worldwide day of prayer for the Chinese Church.

In March, Cardinal Charles Bo, president of the Federation of Catholic Asian Bishops Conferences, called for expanding the day of prayer for the Church in China into an octave, from Pentecost to Trinity Sunday.

Canada’s former religious freedom envoy Andrew Bennett, a member of the international coalition, said Cardinal Bo “has taken a very courageous and welcome step” in calling the Church around the world to pray for the Church and the peoples of China. 

“It is incumbent on us to respond to his call.”

Father Deacon Bennett urged the faithful and parishes to take part in various ways, from Prayers of the Faithful during Mass to personal, private prayer

The Global Prayer for China website has resources for pastors, parishes, and individuals and up-to-date information on the repression and persecution of Christians in China, including the genocide of the Uyghurs and others suffering atrocities and injustices throughout China. It includes profiles of individual prisoners of conscience and pastoral resources for prayers and homilies, as well as the text of Cardinal Bo’s call for prayer.

A three-minute video on the cardinal’s call for prayer, created for the campaign, can be viewed on YouTube.

He said that “Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the peoples of China have faced increasing challenges, which impact us all. It is right that we should pray not only for the Church but for all persons in the People’s Republic  of China.”

“We should ask Our Lady of Sheshan to protect all humanity and therefore the dignity of each and every person in China, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer, ‘to believe, to hope, to love,’” he added.

In February 2020 China began enforcing administrative measures to control every aspect of religious activity within the country, mandating that all religions and believers in China comply with regulations issued by the Chinese Communist Party, which must be acknowledged as the higher authority.

In May the legislature of China approved a resolution to impose new “security laws” on its formerly autonomous region, Hong Kong – a move pro-democracy protesters and Catholics in the country feared would undermine Hong Kongers’ freedoms, including freedom of religion.

A bishop of the underground Church was arrested in June.

In July a technology publication reported that the Diocese of Hong Kong has been targeted by “spear-phishing” operations from the Chinese government.

The Hong Kong diocese intervened in August to cancel a Catholic pro-democracy ad campaign and prayer that was set to run in local papers.

The same month, Hong Kong entrepreneur and media executive Jimmy Lai was arrested on criminal charges stemming from his support for democracy on the island territory.

In September researchers at an Australian think tank found that re-education camps for Muslims in China's Xinjiang region had expanded in the past year, despite government claims that most detainees had been released.

In October the Vatican and China renewed their provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops for another two years.

Last month, Bitter Winter, a religious liberty and human rights magazine, reported that beginning May 1, China’s state-run Catholic Church and bishops’ conference will select, approve, and consecrated episcopal candidates, with no mention of the Vatican’s involvement in the process.

Cardinal Bo said that though much of the world, including Burma, faces its own challenges, “in a spirit of solidarity it is right to focus not only on our own challenges but to pray also for others.”

The cardinal said his proposal expresses love for the peoples of China, “my respect for their ancient civilization and extraordinary economic growth, and my hopes that as it continues to rise as a global power, it may become a force for good and a protector of the rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized of the world.”

“I am calling for prayer for each person in China that they may seek and realize the full measure of happiness that our Creator has given to them.”

“So I urge the faithful, throughout the world, to join me in prayer for the Church and the peoples of China, from 23-30 May, and especially to join with Pope Francis, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and the whole Church to ask, in the worlds [sic] of Benedict XVI, the ‘Mother of China and all Asia’ to support the faithful, that ‘they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world, and of the world to Jesus’, and ‘always be credible witness to this love, ever clinging to the rock of Peter.’”