EUROPE/SPAIN - 442,000 Euros raised in the “Supporting China's Forgotten Catholics” Campaign sponsored by the COPE and “Aid to the Church in Need”

Madrid (Agenzia Fides) – The solidarity campaign “Supporting China's Forgotten Catholics,” which was organized by the COPE Group and the association “Aid to the Church in Need” at Christmas, raised 442,000 Euros thanks to the participation of 3,741 people and institutions. The donations were collected until January 16 and will be used for construction and maintenance of Churches (139,000 Euros), means of transportation (6,500 Euros), support for seminarians and religious (16,400 Euros), construction of a residence for elderly religious (15,000 Euros), printing catechetical material (5,500 Euros), and formation of priests, seminarians, and religious (258,900 Euros).
The assessment of the campaign was publicized yesterday, January 20 in a press conference attended by the Council President of Aid to the Church in Need of Spain, Maria Pilar Gutierrez Corada, the Director of the Spanish Secretariat of the organization, Francisco Javier Menendez Ros, and the General Director of Contents for the COPE, Jose Luis Restan. Corada, who has visited several of the projects that the organization is carrying out on the Asian continent, highlighted that “the strength of their faith is moving...the faith of the Bishops, as well as that of the priests, religious, and lay faithful. In conditions of extreme poverty they come together to pray and celebrate the Eucharist.”
The Director of ACN, Francisco Javier Menendez Ros, expressed the Association's gratitude to the leaders of the COPE for their third consecutive year of support for the institution and pointed out that “from the Secretariat we aimed at raising 500,000 Euros, but we placed no limits.” Once the campaign is over, ACN will continue for the first 4 months of 2009 spreading awareness on the situation of the Catholic Church in China. Menendez Ros emphasized the fact that the generosity of the people was not only evident in the donations, but also “in the prayer and spiritual support that listeners and viewers of the COPE offered for Catholics in China.”
General Director of Contents for the COPE, Jose Luis Restan, has announced that during Christmas 2009, both institutions will launch a new campaign for persecuted Catholics. He also mentioned that “this campaign has helped us to look beyond our horizons to see that faith knows no boundaries, that it is alive in this immense nation, and that we can do something for them and they can also do something for us...they have opened our minds and have given us a renewed strength and enthusiasm so we can live our trivial adversities, inspired by their manner of living their own each day.”
The “Supporting China's Forgotten Catholics” Campaign ran from December 17, 2008 to January 11, 2009, on the COPE Radio Station and the Spanish television station “Popular TV,” through announcements and advertisements. The campaign is the third to take place as a joint effort of the COPE and ACN, after having held two: one for Iraq and another for Bosnia. Last year, they raised 385,000 Euros for the central European nation. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 21/1/2009)