Sheshan shrine preps for Shanghai Expo visits

THE popular Sheshan Marian shrine in Shanghai is preparing to handle a large influx of visitors as the Month of Mary coincides with the start of the six-month-long Shanghai World Expo.

The international fair starts on May 1, the beginning of the busiest month for the Marian shrine that is located on a hill in Shanghai.

Shrine authorities say they have already received bookings from more than 1,000 pilgrims for May 1, mostly from people from neighboring provinces.

Father Francis Li Fangyuan, pastor of Sheshan, said the shrine will increase its number of volunteers to 100 to help receive pilgrims and maintain order.

“We will only know by May” how many security guards and plainclothes police are to be stationed on the hill, he said.

As in past years, police will restrict vehicles from entering Sheshan Ring Road that goes around the foot of the hill from April 30 to May 31.

In May 2008, local sources estimated 1,000 plainclothes and uniformed police personnel were stationed on the hill as the Pope’s mention of the site had sparked government worries that it could be swamped by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.

The shrine was mentioned by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics where he also set May 24, feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, as the “World Prayer Day for the Church in China.”

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