Today is the memorial of the 120,000 Chinese men, women and children along with many foreign missionaries that died for the faith in that country from the 17th century until the early 20th century. Pope John Paul II canonized them ten years ago today.
We in the West often forget the hardships endured by our Catholic brothers and sisters in China. There is a huge underground Catholic Church, faithful to the See of Peter, alive and active in China today. They are very much persecuted and risk death and imprisonment even today if they publicly proclaim their faith. One of my parishioners has fairly frequent contact with this community in her travels to China for other reasons, and has seen personally what this is all about.
Let us pray for them today, and ask the intercession of the 120,000 martyrs in their behalf.
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