Church workers deliver food in China's quake-devastated area

Published: 2008-05-23

MIANYANG, China (CNS) -- Four priests and two nuns crossed a checkpoint leading to a sealed-off area in China's devastated Beichuan County to deliver food to isolated earthquake survivors. They came close to the town of Beichuan, which has been sealed off and will be razed in an effort to prevent epidemics, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News May 23. Father Zhong Cheng, a priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Mianyang, led the Catholic team in three cars and a truck to deliver the aid May 21 and 22 to survivors of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake May 12 in Sichuan province. Three priests from other parts of the country and Sisters Zhang Yimei and Zhan Dengju, who serve in the parish, were part of the relief team. They loaded the truck with five tons of rice and 200 buckets of cooking oil before heading northwest from Mianyang. They delivered the foodstuffs door to door and comforted residents, including some Catholics, at more than 10 locations in Beichuan, An and other counties, Father Zhong told UCA News May 22.

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