Historic churches in steep mountain towns are among the casualties of the earthquake that devastated China's Sichuan province last week, leaving their poor and rural Catholic congregations with little but faith.

Elderly Catholics gathered in Chengdu on Friday to pray for brethren in stricken parishes, while priests and nuns took food to refugees in crowded stadiums or mountain towns.

Spanish-style churches built by Jesuits in the misty Sichuan mountains 100 years ago fared poorly in the quake. Eight were destroyed and about 20 badly damaged, while parishioners are now refugees, living in tents.

"We can't bargain with God," said Father Jacob Li, picking hymn books out of the rubble of his caved-in church in Mianzhu.

"This church may have fallen, but the Church still stands."

Chengdu parishioners sighed over photos of the broken Bailu church in Pengzhou parish, whose four-storey, Spanish-style facade had been sliced off just over the main door.

"I went to Pengzhou once and met Father Zhang there. If he is alive, that shows that the Heavenly Father is looking after us," said a parishioner surnamed Zeng.

Catholics number about 20,000 of the estimated 5 million Sichuanese who are homeless after then 7.9-magnitude earthquake crumpled schools and flattened towns along the Longmenshan fault. More than 55,000 people have been confirmed dead.

"We shouldn't believe that the Lord has turned against our country or our people," said the priest officiating at a commemorative mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Chengdu on Friday.

Heavily persecuted during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Catholics may now practise their faith openly, but under the aegis of a state-approved church. Beijing has no diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and Catholics who do not follow the state church must worship in secret. In the past priests who remained loyal to the Pope risked long prison terms.

In Mianzhu, Father Li said local authorities would designate a temporary chapel and he hoped to celebrate mass soon in a local square, although gatherings are currently prohibited for fear of aftershocks or the spread of disease.

Parishioners in Chengdu said they could offer little beyond immediate relief and spiritual comfort, citing their own tight family finances.

"All they can do is cry, they don't know what to do, and their church collapsed," said Mrs. Zhu, who had gone to Bailu to help the day after the earthquake.

"That area is so poor, we don't really know what to do either. We can only cry and rely on God."