Worshippers from all walks of life attend Mass in China 　　 　　Liu Yuzui, a 66-year-old farmer from Anhui Province, traveled 50 km from her village to Wuhu City alone by train. Not a big deal for most people, but for Liu it is an annual pilgrimage when she leaves behind her labor-intensive rice fields to celebrate the Pentecost, one of the three great festival days of the Christian calendar, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. As she has done for the past 10 years, Liu attended the Mass at St. Joseph Church on June 4, stayed the night and returned home the next day.
　　Rodrigo Alonso, a middle-aged textile businessman from Chile, arrived at Wuhu for a talk with Chinese suppliers on June 3. The minute he met his local business partner, he asked whether there was a Catholic church in town.
　　At 9 a.m. on Pentecost morning. Liu Yuzui and Rodrigo Alonso knelt down in prayer with nearly 200 worshippers in the half-full church at the Pentecost Mass celebrated by Anhui Bishop Liu Xinhong. This was Bishop Liu’s first Mass at St. Joseph Church, the largest Catholic church in Anhui, since becoming a bishop, though his ordination has not been approved by the Vatican. Exactly one month earlier, the ordination ceremony of Bishop Liu took place here. At that time the church reached bursting proportions with around 1,100 people, mostly worshippers from across the province, crammed into the aisles.
　　About 200 meters east of the Yangtze River, the imposing church was originally designed and built as the Cathedral for South China diocese by a French priest in 1887 and rebuilt in 1895. The church is heavily influenced by the Spanish architectural style due to Spanish priests’ involvement in the reconstruction. The structure houses three altars, with St. Joseph’s statue in the middle, the Virgin Mary on the left and Jesus Christ on the right. At its most popular in the 1940s, it accommodated over 60 priests, both foreign and Chinese. An overall renovation of the church was carried out in 2004, with self-funding of 400,000 yuan from the church and another 900,000 yuan the municipal government squeezed out of the local treasury.
　　Liu Yuzui could not remember how many times she has been to the church. The priest and two nuns working there know her as well as a family member, including the exact location of her hometown village. Knowing mosquitoes had plagued her sleep the night before, the two nuns immediately set out to buy mosquito-repellent despite the untimely hour.
　　This is Alonso’s first trip to Wuhu, but he said he felt at home in God’s house. He brought with him a monthly book of prayer readings from the Chilean Catholic church. “The readings are the same and the music is the same with those in my book, only the language is different,” Alonso said. “Actually even the architecture of the church reminds me of the church beside my old Catholic school.”
　　Liu Yuzui was at the new bishop’s consecration ceremony. “He is a kind man and we are satisfied to have him as our shepherd,” said the elderly woman. She said she did not know about the procedure to get approval from the Vatican.
　　When asked how he felt about the fact that the bishop didn’t get the consent from the Vatican, Alonso said, “Whether he is recognized or not is the same, because he is properly ordained. That is a legal matter between bishops and the Holy See.”
　　Worshippers at the Mass were mostly senior citizens. The youngest participants were a handful of babies in mothers’ arms and several toddlers kneeling beside their parents.
　　Ren Lili, 22, a third-year English major from Wuhu Vocational Institute of Informa-tion and Technology, also was in attendance at the Pentecost Mass, along with a few of her classmates.
　　Ren, who was baptized six months ago, said her interest in church ceremonies stemmed from her studies of Western culture. Her religious belief met strong initial opposition from her family, most of whom are Buddhists. Then by chance she found that her great-grandfather was a Catholic and once received charity from the church. She then used the new finding to persuade her parents to give in and let her have her way.
　　“I was a little disappointed by the failure of the new bishop to get recognition from the Vatican, but I also believe that’s only a formality,” Ren said. “He is a kind man and his benevolent personality is in line with my understandings of this religion.”

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