This Easter has been especially important as Father Yao Fei, a short bespectacled ethnic Mongolian in his late 30s, only arrived in Cizhong in February.

This made him the first permanent priest to live here since French clergymen were expelled shortly after communist China was established in 1949.

Since then, Catholic priests were only periodically dispatched to Cizhong for special occasions such as Christmas and Easter, Fang said.

Sunday's service was to be Yao's first in Cizhong church, built in 1910, nearly 50 years after Catholicism was introduced to the region by French and Swiss missionaries.

However, following the deadly March 14 riots in Lhasa, police from Diqing Tibetan prefecture, in the northwest of Yunnan province, told church officials to restrict Easter services to fewer than 100 people.

They did not say why, but it came rights on the heels of the worst violence to hit Tibet in nearly 20 years.

Oh Lord, please bring your peace and your justice to this land! Please protect and encourage the hearts of your people in that place and use the devices of the Enemy against him that your Gospel may spread even farther. Thank you this has made Yahoo! News page and please use it to stir the hearts of the nations. Please open the eye of the communist that they may understand their sins and need of a Savior, please give them the grace to repent.