Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Disabled elderly priest promotes the construction of a new church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Zhou Zhi (Agenzia Fides) - Don Zhang Xiong Feng, disabled elderly priest of the Diocese of Zhou Zhi, in the Shaan Xi province, presided the solemn blessing and location of the new church building cross dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on 12 November. According to what Faith of He Bei reports to Fides, thirty priests concelebrated with the eighty-year-old priest, Don Zhang, while a score of religious of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady and Dominicans together with thousands of faithful took part in the rite. Although Don Zhang had a fractured leg and became an invalid during the Chinese cultural revolutionary, this did not prevent him from pursuing his pastoral mission and evangelization in the parish. As soon as he regained freedom in 1984, he immediately began working to reconstruct a simple chapel on the ruins of the church dedicated to the Sacred Heart. During these years the faithful have increased considerably and consequently the parish needs a larger and solid church. Last year, therefore the old priest decided to fulfill this dream and mobilized all the faithful to build a new church by collecting the necessary funds. After reaching 1.1 million yuan (about 270 thousand euros) he began the work of the church which is 35 meters long and 15 meters wide. According to the forecasts 2 million yuan is needed, but Don Zhang is confident: "let’s leave it all in God's hands, so that we have God’s temple where to pray and to break Bread". (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 16/11/2011)

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