During this year’s Lent, the charitable Catholicassociation of pontifical right “Aid to the Church in Need” has once again organized a campaign to support priests of the persecuted Church, which provides for the collection of prayer intentions at the Divine Service.
“Where the poverty and persecution have become an extraordinary challenge even for simple performance of Apostolate, the priests do not cease to courageously act in the most difficult situations, staying in many cases the only reference point not only for Christian communities, but for the entire population,” reads the communiqué dedicated to the campaign.
“In many parts of the world,” noted representatives of charitable organizations, “the priests are fully dependent on our support. Therefore, the “Aid to the Church in Need” always allocated a considerable share of obtained donations to support clergymen in the countries where the Church is persecuted or poor.” It is being done, in particular, by transferring the prayer intentions received from benefactors to priests.
The communiqué states that the benefactors may (through the agency of the association) instructthe priests of the suffering and persecuted Church to offer the Eucharistic sacrifice in their intentions. In many cases, this donation is the only source of maintenance of these priests.
According to “Aid to the Church in Need,” in 2014 over 1.2 million Masses were served in the intentions of this association’s benefactors, and the received donations were allocated for maintenance of more than 35,000 priests. Almost 40% of the priests, who received these intentions, live in Africa, 25% of them - in Asia, 18% - in Eastern Europe.
“In many parts of the world,” goes the message,“the faithful are unable to contribute to the maintenance of the church and are depending on the economic support provided by the Church. At the same time, the priests have to look for a job to provide their living, sparing this time from their mission. This is why the liturgical intentions in many dioceses of the world keep the church alive.”It was reported by Vatican Radio.