By La Croix International staff
Typhoon Bebinca, the strongest storm to hit Shanghai since 1949, devastated over ten churches, including the century-old Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, causing significant damage and halting services for a week.
Bishop Joseph Shen Bin of Shanghai pledged diocesan support for relief and reconstruction efforts. In a message to diocesan groups via WeChat, he urged everyone to ensure safety and prepare rescue operations after the typhoon. “The diocese,” he wrote, “will provide funds for relief and reconstruction.”
Following the devastation of six churches in south China’s Hainan by Typhoon Yagi, Typhoon Bebinca struck Shanghai’s Pudong area on Sep 16, damaging over ten churches. Among them was the century-old Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, one of the most beautiful in the Diocese of Shanghai, which sustained 80 percent damage to its structure. The floodwaters reached the altar and sacristy, and an 18-meter stained glass window was shattered, causing the suspension of liturgical celebrations for a week, Fides reported.
Nationwide Catholic relief efforts mobilized
The Sep 4 disaster in Hainan deeply moved Catholics across the country. Priests and nuns on the island quickly organized after the typhoon to check on parishioners and their families affected by the destruction. At the request of Bishops Joseph Shen Bin and Joseph Li Shan of Beijing, the Catholic charitable organization “Jinde Charities” initiated first aid efforts and coordinated disaster recovery plans with local church communities and relevant authorities. Church-run Jinde Charities, founded in 1997, is the first non-profit civil society service organization of the Catholic Church in China. It provides healthcare, psychological support, reconstruction, and rehabilitation projects in areas impacted by natural disasters in China and abroad. The name “Jinde” honors Bishop Hou Jinde of the Xingtai Diocese, who died on May 21, 1994, and was known for helping the poor.
The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, severely damaged, is considered a “miniature version” of the famous Marian shrine in Lourdes, France. It was built in 1870 by Jesuit Father Joan-Maria Gouraud (1855-1903) after receiving a substantial inheritance from his mother. Father Gouraud had long dreamt of building a church in the Pudong district and began his project with a 14-acre land donation from a benefactor. The first stone was laid on April 6, 1894, and construction was completed by the end of 1897. In 1904, Pope Pius X recognized it as the second Marian shrine after the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Sheshan.
The China Meteorological Administration reported that Typhoon Bebinca made landfall early Sep 16 in the Pudong business district of Shanghai, with winds reaching 151 kph near its center. This comes soon after Typhoon Yagi, which made landfall in Hainan with winds of 230 kph, killing four and causing widespread damage across Southeast Asia.
Typhoons Bebinca wreaks havoc
Authorities reported that 414,000 residents across Shanghai were evacuated to safer areas as Typhoon Bebinca approached, with tens of thousands of emergency personnel ready for deployment. According to the municipal news service, the storm inflicted “significant damage across the city,” toppling over 1,800 trees and leaving 30,000 households without power.
According to Xinhua, China’s Ministry of Water Resources on September issued a Level-IV emergency response for flooding in five regions: Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, and Hainan. This is the lowest level in the country’s four-tier system. The ministry warned that due to Typhoon Bebinca and a tropical depression in the South China Sea, water levels in several small and medium rivers across the five regions could surpass warning thresholds between Sep 18-20.
Experts have linked the intensification of such storms to hotter ocean temperatures driven by human-caused climate change. Shanghai, a financial hub with 25 million residents, is typically not in the direct path of strong typhoons, which usually strike further south in China. Before Bebinca, only two typhoons, in 1949 and 2022, directly impacted the city, along with a few severe tropical storms, according to data from the China Meteorological Administration. – La Croix International
