May 24, 2008 / 04:57 am
Pope Benedict XVI has specially composed a Marian prayer for the World Day of Prayer for China, a day which the head of an international Catholic charity has said should not be allowed to “pass by unnoticed.”
The World Day of Prayer for China is scheduled for Saturday, which is the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. For the day of prayer, Pope Benedict XVI specially composed a prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan, whose image is greatly revered by Chinese Catholics.
Pope Benedict’s prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan closes, “Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love, ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built. Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and forever. Amen!"
Father Joaquín Alliende, the president designate of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) praised Saturday’s World Day of Prayer for China. He said the Holy Father’s action shows that the Pope, “by virtue of his universal office and as the father of Christianity, has a view of the whole picture.”