The Napa Institute is inviting Catholics to join in a novena this month to Our Lady, Help of Christians, for the release of Catholic Chinese dissident Jimmy Lai, who has been in solitary confinement for several years during an ongoing trial and awaits a sentencing from a Hong Kong court.
“Our fellow Catholic has been unjustly imprisoned by Communist China since late 2020,” Napa stated in a Nov. 11 press release. “He’s been punished for exercising his freedom — and living out his faith.”
Napa recounted how Lai, a convert and billionaire media mogul, advocated for democracy and spoke out against the Communist oppression in Hong Kong. He was arrested in 2020 and the Hong Kong government shuttered Lai’s independent news publication, The Apple Daily in 2021, as CatholicVote previously reported. His son Sebastien has since advocated for his father’s release, warning that his father, who is in his late 70s, suffers from health difficulties worsened by the poor conditions of solitary confinement. A life sentence in prison, which may await Lai now that his trial has concluded, would likely spell a death sentence for him.
President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October. Ahead of the meeting, Trump said that Lai’s situation was one of the issues he intended to address.
Napa noted that in light of these developments, an increasing number of people are learning about Lai’s story and about “[h]ow he has suffered for his courage and faith.”
The novena to Our Lady, Help of Christians, on Lai’s behalf, begins Nov. 15 and ends Nov. 23, the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
The novena includes a Scripture reading for each day, the Rosary, the novena prayer to Our Lady, Help of Christians, and a closing prayer.
“Through the intercession of Our Lady, Help of Christians, we pray for Jimmy’s strength, peace, and protection, and — according to God’s will — for his swift release,” Napa states in the novena’s opening. “We also lift up his family and all who suffer for the cause of faith and freedom.”
More information about the novena is available here.