"The Holy Door is closed, but the mercy of the Lord is upon us forever;
the proclamation of the Lord's mercy continues; the door of mercy in
our hearts remain open forever; the work of mercy continues": with this
spirit, the Catholic communities of continental China closed the Holy
Doors of the different dioceses on Sunday, 13 November, as indicated by
Pope Francis, in communion with the universal Church.
From the immense
steppes of Inner Mongolia, which closed 6 Holy Doors, to the South of Hu
Bei, from the north of He Bei to the east coast of Wen Zhou, there were
numerous initiatives in the Year of Mercy, as Agenzia Fides learns from
Faith.
The rite of the closing of the Holy Door was the occasion to
make a brief summary of the Holy Year or to carry out some gestures that
indicate the commitment to continue the witness of mercy.
His Exc. Mgr. An Shu Xin, Bishop of the Diocese of Bao Ding in He Bei
province, presided at the solemn closing of the Holy Door, one of the
three opened in the diocese, in the important Marian Shrine of Dong Lu,
in front of thousands of faithful.
In his homily he stressed the gifts of mercy: conversion, forgiveness,
charity work. "While we opened the Holy Door, the door of our heart
opened, and will remain forever open thanks to the constant nourishment
of the mercy of the Lord which filled us. It purified, strengthened us
in faith and converted us. It has made us missionaries of his mercy. We,
therefore, bring the message of the good news to all brothers and
sisters, because the closing of the Holy Door indicates a new horizon in
the life of the Church".
In the Diocese of Ji Nan the closing of the Holy Door was accompanied by a significant gesture:
delivery of the diploma to the catechists who completed the three-year
training course. The diocesan Bishop, Mgr. Zhang Xian Wang, recalled:
"We opened 5 Holy Doors, organized the pilgrimage, the first diocesan
Youth Day, the works of mercy and many other initiatives. In the future
may every word, every action be a testimony of the mercy of God that we
received".
The Diocese of Yi Chang, in the Province of Hu Bei, during the closing
of the Holy Door recalled that this year received 40 groups of pilgrims
and organized the pilgrimage of groups of faithful of the diocese in
China and abroad (Holy Land, Rome, France and Poland), as well as a
hundred visits to the sick, elderly, while the evangelization group
carried out the service of reception 24 hours a day at the Holy Door of
the Cathedral dedicated to St Francis.
The faithful of the Diocese of Su Zhou, Jiang Su province, have a
special reason for happiness, since during their pilgrimage to Rome they
were received by the Pope in St. Peter's Square. For them it was "an
extraordinary grace of God".
In Inner Mongolia more than 30,000 faithful crossed through the Holy
Door during the pilgrimage, over 6000 made a pilgrimage abroad,
especially in Rome and Holy Land.
A series of testimonies on mercy marked the closing of the Holy Door of
the Diocese of Han Zhong, in Shaan Xi Province. Those who spoke
confirmed their determination to be "missionaries of mercy" so that "the
door of mercy in our hearts remain open forever".
The Diocese of Xi Chang, in the province of Si Chuan, during the closing
ceremony of the Holy Door also conferred the missionary mandate to
"missionaries of mercy".