ASIA/CHINA - “We send messages to the Pope to tell him that we love him already a lot, China loves him, our people love him and we want him to come to China soon!”

Beijing (Fides Service) - “It’s so exciting”, “I am telling everyone to send messages to Pope Benedict XVI to let him know that China loves him”. “No matter whether he answers or not, I know he must be very busy but I just want him to know that we love him a lot, China loves him, China’s people love him”. These are some of the messages sent to Catholic Ondine http://www.ccccn.org/. Since the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI has an e-mail address benedictoxvi@vatican.va, many people in China have been sending greetings to the new Bishop of Rome, expressing their love, loyalty and desire to be united with him. Other messages on the Forum, include remarks such as “I am sorry my English is so poor, but I send my message all the same because I want him to know that we love him”, “I wrote a message to the Pope, I know he cannot answer personally, but he must know that we love him and want to see him because we want the Pope to come to China as soon as possible”; “I wrote in Chinese, and I think he may understand because he speaks ten languages. And then anyway his heart will certainly understand”. Some messages are a call to write a message: “We believe that prayer can work miracles because God is almighty. To write to the Pope is a way of letting him know we support him. Brothers and sisters, let’s write to our Pope Benedict XVI”. (Agenzia Fides 22/04/2005 Righe: 23 Parole: 257)