At Mass next Sunday, look around you. For each person you see, imagine another 11 people. That will give you some idea of the numbers of Catholics in China. In a huge country of 1.3 billion people, numbers are never more than estimates. But even conservative guesses put the Catholic population of China at 12 million, about 12 for every Mass attender in the UK.

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) knows that the cost of keeping the faith in China is high, but courage and hope are in good supply in a country where Christian witness can bring repression and hardship. In line with Vatican thinking, ACN’s projects are aimed at inspiring reconciliation between the ‘Official’ Catholic Church, which is State-recognised, and the ‘Underground’ Catholic Church, which refuses to join the Government’s Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA).

Signs of hope centre around the fact that more than 90% of China’s bishops are recognised by the Holy See. Pope Benedict XVI’s Letter to China sought to remove obstacles to unity, while praising the Church for keeping the faith through the long, dark years of persecution. ACN visitors to China have witnessed increasing co-operation between the ‘Underground’ and ‘Official’ Church.

Aid to the Church in Need is able to help, thanks to the generosity of benefactors in the UK and around the world. Funding is provided for priestly formation and for the building and repair of churches and presbyteries. The hunger books and other literature about the faith is met by ACN’s ‘I Believe’ catechism and ‘God Speaks to His Children’ Child’s Bible. Mass offerings go to needy Chinese priests. Donations for this work are always welcome.

‘What we so urgently need’, an Underground Sister told ACN recently, ‘are the prayers of our benefactors. That is so important.’ The call to prayer for the Church in China will ring out loud and clear during May, in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, and throughout the months ahead as China is in the news.

Pope Benedict has called for a Universal Day of Prayer for the Church in China on 24th May, the Feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians. You may want to ask your parish priest to include prayers for China during the fortnight prior to this special day, beginning on Saturday 10th May, a day ACN has set aside for prayers for our Chinese brothers and sisters in the faith.

• Give thanks for the strength and courage of Chinese Catholics.
• Pray that the 12 Chinese bishops still held in detention or in hiding can face their ordeal with courage and strength.
• Pray for new converts to the faith, estimated by some priests to be 100,000 each year.
• Pray for the 1,500 seminarians and the 550 sisters in formation in the country.
• Pray for continued support for Aid to the Church in Need’s help for the Church in China.

For more information about ACN’s ‘Torch of Faith’ campaign on behalf of the Church in China or to make a donation, go to www.acnuk.org, or telephone 020 8642 8668. For copies of ACN’s ‘China: The Torch of Faith’ report, a speaker at Masses or at other parish events, or for ideas on how you or your parish can support ACN, contact Betty East, ACN Area Secretary for Leeds and Middlesbrough Dioceses, tel (01751) 472727; e-mail betty.east@btopenworld.com