Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong

Infobox Diocese| jurisdiction=Diocese
name= Hong Kong
香港
latin=Dioecesis Sciiamchiamensis
rite=Latin Rite
country= Hong Kong
cathedral = 聖母無原罪主教座堂
("Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception")
cocathedral =
area= 1,102
population= 6,882,600
population_as_of= 2006
catholics= 344,166
catholics_percent= 5.0
bishop= Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B. (陳日君)
coadjutor = John Tong Hon (湯漢)
auxiliary_bishops =
The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong (CDHK, zh-t|t=天主教香港教區) is a Latin Rite ordinary diocese of the Catholic Church headed by His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Zen as bishop. The bishop, though he is subject to the Roman Pontiff, is not the vicar of the latter: he governs it in his own name. The Diocese takes its name from the see city, the community where the bishop resides. For more information, see Roman Catholicism in Hong Kong.

There are about 240,000 non-Filipino Catholics (as of November 2005) and 130,000 Filipino Catholics in Hong Kong. They are served by 309 priests, 60 brothers and 519 sisters. There are 52 parishes, comprising 40 churches, 30 chapels and 28 halls for religious service. In education, there are 320 Catholic schools and kindergartens which have about 286,000 pupils.

History

The organization of what would one day become the Diocese of Hong Kong began immediately after the establishment of Hong Kong as a British colony.

Apostolic Prefect

In 1841, Gregory XVI created a Prefecture Apostolic comprising "Hong Kong with the surrounding six leagues" independent from the Diocese of Macau, but under the authority of the Bishop of Macao. The initial need for the establishment of the prefecture was the spiritual care of the British (Irish Catholic) soldiers stationed in the newly established colony.

Theodore Joset, a Swiss diocesan priest, became the first Prefect Apostolic.

The prefecture functioned much as a mission, except that it was intended, from its inception, to become a diocese eventually. In the first ten years, the missionaries built churches, schools, a seminary, and institutions for the sick, elderly, and orphans.

Following Joset's death in 1842, Anthony Feliciani became Prefect Apostolic of Hong Kong and Macao.

The foundation stone of the first church was laid in 1842. It was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in 1843, enlarged in 1858-59, burnt down on 18 October 1859, rebuilt and blessed on 18 March 1860. (This church was the predecessor of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Hong Kong, which was built in 1883 at its present site in Caine Road.)

In 1858, the first missionaries belonging to the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Milan (now PIME) arrived; they were designated to take over the administration of the mission in time.

By 1860, the physical territory had spread well beyond the initial six leagues surrounding Hong Kong to include the San On District, the Kowloon Peninsula, Sai Kung Peninsula, and Nam Tau.

Apostolic Vicariate

In 1874, the Hong Kong Prefecture was raised to a vicariate Apostolic, and entrusted to the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Milan (now PIME). While the prefecture had been run by missionary priests, a vicariate was the intermediary step before becoming a diocese, and required a bishop to run it. However, since the territory was not yet a diocese, the bishops were called "titular bishop" of another place (where they had no ecclesiastical authority). The bishops were under the direct authority of the Pope, exercising their power in his name, rather than being vested with the office belonging to a diocese.

The first vicar Apostolic was Giovanni Timoleon Raimondi, titular Bishop of Acanthus (consecrated 22 November 1874), who died at Mission House, Glenealy, Hong Kong, 27 September 1894. He was succeeded by Monsignor Louis Piazzoli (born 1849), titular Bishop of Clazomenæ, and Dominic Pozzoni (born 1851), titular Bishop of Tavia, elected 26 May, 1905.

In 1880, the vicariate hosted the first synod of the fifth ecclesiastical region of the Catholic Church in China; it hosted a second synod in 1891, and a third in 1909.

In 1883, the foundation stone of a new cathedral was laid. This is the present Immaculate Conception Cathedral. It was inaugurated in 1888.

The vicariate continued to grow. In 1913, it included 12 European and 10 native priests and 14,195 Christians; there were 26 churches, 5 of them with resident priests; 40 schools for boys and 29 schools for girls; 12 Brothers of the Christian Schools; 35 Sisters of Canossa; 22 Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres; and 54 native Sisters.

Besides the island of Hong Kong, the vicariate included the island of Lautau and adjacent islands and the three continental districts of Sa-non, Kwei-shing, and Haï-fung. The churches with resident priests were the cathedral (Glenealy), St. Joseph's (Garden Road), St. Francis (Wanchai), Church of the Sacred Heart (West Point), Church of St. Anthony (West Point). The Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris had a procurator, a sanitorium and a printing office at Hong Kong; there was also a Dominican procurator.

More missionaries arrived from many orders throughout the 1920s and 1930s, building more churches, schools, and hospitals.

During World War II, the Japanese occupation stopped almost all activities. Missionaries evacuated, and were variously interned, released, and expelled. After the war, reconstruction began immediately.

Diocese

On April 11, 1946, Pope Pius XII established the episcopal hierarchy in China, raising all the apostolic vicariates to Dioceses, Hong Kong among them, through the following Apostolic Constitution in Latin, sent to each Vicar Apostolic together with a letter from the Apostolic Internuncius, Anthony Riberi in the summer 1946. Since then, the Hong Kong Diocese is directly responsible to the pope. Enrico Valtorta became the first bishop of Hong Kong.

In 1949, refugees fleeing the Communist regime began to pour into Hong Kong, including many Catholics and clergymen from all over China; diocesan activities were effectively restricted to the boundaries of the Colony. In 1952, the diocese opened seven new chapels for refugees.

In 1969, Bishop Francis Hsu (徐誠斌主教) became the first Chinese bishop in Hong Kong after the resignation of Lorenzo Bianchi.

On May 29, 1988, John Baptist Wu (胡振中), the 5th bishop, was named a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II. He was the first to be named cardinal from the Hong Kong diocese.

On August 18, 1991, an Open Forum on "Elections 1991", jointly organized by the Council of Priests, the Justice and Peace Commission, the Central Council of Catholic Laity and the Catholic Institute for Religion and Society, was held in the nine constituencies of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories in order to encourage the faithful to take an active part in the direct elections to the Legislative Council on 15 September. Church organizations also made a similar appeal to the faithful and ordinary citizens through publications, questionnaires and advertisements in newspapers.

On April 15, 1993, the diocese was re-divided into nine deaneries. Council of Priests reorganized with all the deans included as ex officio members.

After the death of Cardinal Wu on September 23, 2002, his coadjutor Joseph Zen became the 6th bishop of Hong Kong.

On August 17, 2003, eight members of the radical Rainbow Action gay rights group disrupted a Sunday Mass at the Catholic Cathedral. They were responding to the Church’s opposition to homosexual marriages, as set forth by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 3 June 2003, in a document entitled "Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons". Subsequently, Bishop Zen met with representatives of various gay rights groups to clarify the Church’s stand and reaffirmed that he had no discrimination against homosexual persons as such.

On July 8, 2004, the Legislative Council passed the Education (Amendment) Bill Under the New Ordinance, and would be effective on 1 January 2005, every aided school would required before 2010 to form an incorporated management committee (IMC) whose members should include elected representatives of teachers, parents of students and alumni, as well as other independent persons, with a view to promoting a school-based management. It was the concern of the Church that, as a sponsoring body, she would no longer be empowered in the future to supervise the schools under her sponsorship, nor be able to achieve her goals and objectives in Catholic education. On June 5, 2005, Bishop Zen announced that if the Legislative Council pass the donation to support schools to create incorporated management committees on July 8, 2005, he would appeal against the decision to the court. After the Government decided to give up some main argued points, the Diocese decided that it will support the motion.

On February 22, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI announced that Bishop Joseph Zen would be raised to the College of Cardinals. He received his red biretta on March 24, 2006 after a day of reflection on March 23. He received his Cardinalatial ring on March 25, 2006, the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord.

Political influence

Joseph Cardinal Zen is an outspoken supporter of democracy and critic of the People's Republic of China. His views on government policies are often at odds with those of Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who is also a Catholic.

List of leaders

The first resident priest of the colony was Michael Navarro, a Spanish Franciscan, who arrived in January 1842.

Apostolic prefects

*Theodore Joset (1841-1842)
*Anthony Feliciani (1842-1847), MEP (Vicar Apostolic of Japan) as Pro-Prefect of Hong Kong 1847-1850
*Augustin Forcade (1847-1850)
*Anthony Feliciani (1850-1855)
*Aloysius Ambrosi (1855-1867) - formerly Louis Ambrosi
*Timoleon Raimondi (1867-1874)

Apostolic vicars

*Timoleon Raimondi (1874-1894)
*Louis Piazzoli (1895-1904)
*Dominic Pozzoni (1905-1924)
*Enrico Valtorta (1926-1946)

Bishops

*Enrico Valtorta (1946-1951)
*Lorenzo Bianchi (1951-1968)
*Francis Hsu Chen-Ping (1969-1973)
*Peter Lei Wang-Kei (1973-1974)(After the sudden death of Lei, Lam acted as the Vicar Capitular of the diocese for more than a year.)
*John Baptist Wu Cheng-Chung (1975-2002)
*Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun (2002-present)

ee also

*Christianity in Hong Kong
*Anglican diocese of Hong Kong Island
*Sino-Vaticanese relations

References

External links

* [http://www.catholic.org.hk/ Official website of the diocese]
* [http://archives.catholic.org.hk/chronology/index.htm timeline of the history of the Diocese]
* [http://www.gcatholic.com/dioceses/diocese/hong0.htm Giga-Catholic Information]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07450a.htm article on the Apostolic Vicariate of Hong Kong] from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.