Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Beijing (Agenzia Fides) - "Let us run for the elderly, the poor, the disabled children, the orphans and all the charitable work that the Church has entrusted to us": with this objective 52 nuns, 4 priests and 2 seminarians, from different continental Chinese Catholic communities, participated yesterday, Sunday, Oct. 16, in the Marathon charity in Beijing, which has been held for 30 years, entitled "Running for Charity". The participants were about 30 000. According to the information Fides gathered, thanks to the commitment and dedication of the runners, the nuns, priests and seminarians collected 550 thousand Yuan (about 60 000 euros). After the Mass celebrated in the morning on October 15, which ended with the blessing of the runners, the sisters raised an additional 18,300 Yuan, which will go to charities their congregation deals with, such as a S. Joseph Freinademetz of Shan Dong Nursing Home for Elders, the Orphanage of He Bei, the Clinic and the Center for Rehabilitation of mentally and physically Disabled minors....
Seven nuns and a priest completed the entire course of 42.195 km in just over 5 hours (5 nuns are of the same Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Spirit), 11 ran for more than 21 km, the others did 9 Km. During the marathon the faithful of Beijing were close to them as fans and assistants. According to the organizer of the marathon, for the third time the Chinese Catholic charitable organization Jinde Charities is one of the organizers of the event together with Children with Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK, Alzheimer's Society ... It is the first time in the world that a group with so many nuns took part in a marathon and that a Chinese priest completed the entire course. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 17/10/2011)
