Chinese Catholics observe silence to mourn quake victims

Published: 2008-05-19

CHENGDU, China (CNS) -- Catholics joined other Chinese in observing three minutes of silence May 19 to pray for and mourn those killed by the earthquake that hit southwestern China a week earlier. The Chinese government declared an unprecedented three-day period of national mourning May 19-21 for victims of the magnitude 7.9 quake. Entertainment businesses were to be closed and the Beijing Olympics torch relay in Zhejiang and Shanghai was suspended until May 22, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency. After a Mass at Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan, about 80 Catholics stood and observed the three minutes of silence at 2:28 p.m., the time at which the quake struck a week earlier. The quake's epicenter was in Wenchuan, just northwest of Chengdu. Around the country, air-raid sirens and the horns of cars, trains and ships were sounded in expressions of grief as the Chinese stood in silence.

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