New Hong Kong bishop to be announced within weeks

February 17, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Hong Kong, China, Feb 17, 2020 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Priests in the Diocese of Hong Kong are expecting the announcement of their new bishop within the next two weeks. 

“We have been told to expect an announcement within the next ten days or so,” a senior priest in Hong Kong told CNA Feb. 15. The priest confirmed that Rev. Peter Choy Wai-man is the expected appointee. 

“I think by the end of the month we should see something official,” the priest added.

The Hong Kong diocese has been without a permanent leader since the death of Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung in January 2019.

On Jan. 17, CNA reported that the Vatican had selected Rev. Peter Choy Wai-man as Hong Kong’s new bishop but had decided to delay the announcement of Choy’s appointment indefinitely. 

The delay was reportedly because of local and Vatican concerns that Choy is seen as sympathetic with the mainland Chinese government, while many Catholics in Hong Kong are supportive or engaged in pro-democracy protests taking place in the region.

Echoing those concerns, one Hong Kong priest described Choy to CNA as a “pro-Beijing hawk.”

A second senior cleric in the diocese told CNA that despite those concerns, Vatican and Chinese authorities have agreed to Choy’s appointment, and concerns over a backlash among local Catholics have apparently subsided.  

“I think the coronavirus business has had at least something to do with it,” he told CNA. “It is not as simple as cause and effect, but it has contributed. Initially, the worry was it might feature in the street protests and [the announcement] was delayed at least until after the [Chinese] New Year [Jan. 25], which was very heavily restrained this year.”

“Now, with schools closed and public demonstrations much less on the agenda, there is a sense that the time is right.”

Fr. Choy was born in Hong Kong in 1959, and ordained a priest in 1986. Since Oct. 2017, he has served as one of four vicars general of the Diocese of Hong Kong, appointed with responsibility for the bishop’s office, the ongoing formation for both clergy and laity, and leading ecumenical and interreligious dialogue for the diocese. Choy also serves as the dean of Hong Kong’s seminary.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun SDB, who led the Diocese of Hong Kong from 2002-2009 and is a critic of the Vatican’s relationship to the Chinese government in Beijing, talked with CNA on Friday about the appointment. 

Zen said that Choy’s nomination could widen a growing divide among Chinese Catholics. 

“There is a group of young Catholics [in Hong Kong] who are very strongly against this nomination” he said. The cardinal added that they hoped the Vatican might revisit the decision before it was publicly announced.

“The Catholic establishment [in Hong Kong] is divided,” Zen said. “They say that the future bishop needs the blessing of Beijing.”

The cardinal mentioned broad support among local Catholics for Hong Kong auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, who is associated with the protestors on the island, and has appeared at several demonstrations.

Last month, CNA reported that Bishop Ha had been initially selected by the Vatican to lead the Hong Kong diocese, but the decision was reversed after Ha was pictured at the front of a pro-democracy street demonstration.

“We have an auxiliary bishop, Bishop Ha, [who is] very good, and really a wise leader of the community during these last months,” Zen said. 

“But I know that the actual pontifical delegate, Cardinal Tong, he receives instructions from the Vatican and must follow those instructions – I suppose they are always on the line of compromise.”

CNA reported last month that Cardinal Tong had recommended against an announcement of Fr. Choy’s appointment until the political situation on the island had stabilized.

On Jan. 16, CNA asked Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See Secretary of State, about the selection of Fr. Choy to lead the Hong Kong diocese, and about the decision of the Vatican’s decision to delay announcing the appointment.

On Feb. 15, a spokesman for Cardinal Parolin told CNA that the cardinal had no comments on Fr. Choy’s reported selection or on the timing of any announcement of a new Bishop of Hong Kong.

 

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Children and youth to play central role in Pope Francis visit to Papua New Guinea

May 8, 2024 Catholic News Agency 2
Children look on during a procession at the General Assembly that was held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in 2022. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands

CNA Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Children and youth will be central to Pope Francis’ visit to Papua New Guinea from Sept. 6–9, according to Father Giorgio Licini, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Solomon Islands.   

Licini, who is on the organizing committee of the Holy Father’s 2024 visit, said young people are central in the planning of the papal trip to Papua New Guinea. In the Catholic Church, “the level of participation by laity and youth is high,” he said. “Everything is ‘young’ in PNG: church, country, modern civilization.” 

“It was only in early October 2023 that our bishops’ conference was told that the pope still had a great desire to visit Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea in Oceania,” Licini told CNA. 

Women gather during the General Assembly held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in Papua New Guinea in 2022. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands
Women gather during the General Assembly held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in Papua New Guinea in 2022. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands

As part of his apostolic journey, Pope Francis is expected to visit a safe house for young girls in Vanimo and then, in the nearby village of Baro, greet missionaries, staff, and students of a school he helped develop. In Port Moresby, the Holy Father intends to meet with children supported by the archdiocese’s ministries for the care of street children. 

“The youth here greatly suffer for lack of education and employment opportunities. The breakdown of the family adds to neglect, poverty, and micro-criminality,” Licini explained. “Besides education and health, nowadays the social services of the Catholic Church focus on family life, child protection and promotion, domestic violence, and sorcery accusations related [to] violence, corruption awareness, and justice, peace, and reconciliation, mainly in [areas affected by tribal violence].” 

The last appointment of the papal visit in Papua New Guinea will be a youth festival at the city stadium in Port Moresby.

Isabella Saleu, a young laywoman working for Caritas Papua New Guinea — the justice, peace, relief, and development agency of the Catholic Church in the country — said she looks forward to the youth festival planned with the pope and believes his visit will be a “spiritually enriching experience” that will reinforce the Catholic identity in the country.

“The world needs us young people and all the enthusiasm we have to make it better, safer, happier and more Christ-like,” Saleu told CNA. “Over the years, the Church has not only evangelized but [also] has contributed immensely to delivering basic services by providing schools and institutions, hospitals, clinics and aid posts, safe houses, and facilities for pastoral and social services.” 

“Considering also the recent fateful events of ‘Black Wednesday’ on Jan. 10 that resulted in deaths and hospitalization, as the country came to a standstill when thugs took over the streets of the capital city Port Moresby who looted and burned down shops and caused the city to tremble in fear as police ceased duties, we hope that the papal visit raises our spirits to continue to move forward as a nation,” she added. 

Catholics from Papua New Guinea during the General Assembly that was held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in 2022. Credit: Photo courtesy of Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands
Catholics from Papua New Guinea during the General Assembly that was held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in 2022. Credit: Photo courtesy of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands

To date, over 98% of Papua New Guinea citizens identify as Christian. Catholicism represents the largest Christian denomination in the country with an estimated 4 million people — about 25% of the total population. 

Pope Francis’ visit to Papua New Guinea will be his first trip to the country as part of his 11-day Asia Pacific apostolic journey in September. Pope John Paul II visited Papua New Guinea in 1984 and 1995.

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