Shanghai Scrap

As promised in today’s earlier post – some photos taken this morning at the Sheshan Marian Basilica in Songjiang District, Shanghai. The building is currently undergoing repairs (my reason for traveling out there was to see the work) and receiving a general “gussying-up” in advance of what promises to be the busiest May in the building’s sixty-three year history.

Most notably, on May 24 Sheshan will hold a mass to coincide with and recognize Pope Benedict XVI’s declaration that the day be devoted to prayers for China’s Catholic Church (“This day is dedicated to the liturgical memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion at the Marian Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai.“). As a symbolic event, this mass (to be celebrated by Bishop Jin Luxian) is surely one of the most important in the history of Chinese Catholicism, and surely one of the most explicit signals of unity with Rome since China’s Catholics began to emerge from the persecutions of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1970s.

In fact, May has been Sheshan’s busiest month dating back to 1870s and Pope Pius IX’s declaration of full amnesty to pilgrims who visit the site during the month. This year, as in past years, that pilgrimage will commence on May 1.

A quick note on dimensions. The Wikipedia entry on Sheshan incorrectly claims that the church is “the largest Christian Church building in East Asia” and is capable of seating 3000 (!) in a nave correctly described as 55.81m x 24.68m. In fact, the largest church in East Asia is the St. Ignatius Cathedral (nave: 79m x 28m) located in Shanghai’s Xujiahui neighborhood. Neither church can hold 3000; at Sheshan, not even close.