Prayers, practical help and peace

There is little to distinguish the Jinde Old Age Home from other facilities of the same type in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province. The only noticeable difference is that a Catholic Mass is celebrated every evening and the home is managed by a nun.

The home, funded by Jinde Charities, a Catholic foundation in Hebei, has 57 residents, 28 of whom are practicing Catholics.

Catholic seniors receive emotional and practical help from a priest during the last minutes of their life, said Wang Huarui, a nun who is also deputy dean of the home, overseeing three other nuns and a small number of lay workers.