By FR. BERNARDO CERVELLERA
VATICAN CITY (AsiaNews) — The new bishop of Hong Kong is Fr. Stephen Chow Sau-yan, hitherto provincial of the Chinese province of the Jesuits, which includes Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China.
The appointment by Pope Francis was released May 17 at noon and had been expected for a long time, after the death in 2019 of Msgr. Michael Yeung Ming-cheung. Throughout this period the diocese had been entrusted to John Cardinal Tong as apostolic administrator.
The initial reactions from Hong Kong, from faithful and priests, are positive. The new bishop is seen as a Solomonic and balanced choice by the Vatican after more than two years in which the Catholic community of Hong Kong was divided between two possible candidates: Msgr. Joseph Ha, Franciscan, auxiliary bishop, close to the democratic movement and students, and Fr. Peter Choy, scholar, considered close to the Beijing authorities. The Vatican choice, although very late, seems to balance the two tensions and may perhaps help the recomposition of the diocesan community.
According to some priests in the area, the new bishop is a “quiet type, but firm in the faith of the Catholic Church and very committed in the field of Catholic education.”
For many observers, education will perhaps be the new battleground between Catholics and Beijing. During the demonstrations against the extradition and democracy law of 2019, education in Catholic schools was singled out as the “cause” that led young people to engage in the democratic movement. Many expect that following the national security law, Beijing will intervene on the freedom of education in the territory, where the Catholic Church runs over 300 schools.
When he was a priest, Fr. Chow in 2011 was able to experience the negative pressure of Beijing when the Jesuits wanted to establish a Catholic university in Hong Kong in a former military camp in Fanling. The then chief executive, strongly pro-China Leung Chun-ying, changed the use of the land, and blocked the project.
As provincial of the Jesuits, Chow has cultivated friendly relations with China. During the pandemic that broke out in China last year, his province, along with the American one, sent medical supplies and donations to Hubei, the epicenter of the pandemic.
According to the Vatican Press Office, Msgr. Chow was born in Hong Kong on August 7, 1959. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1984, having already obtained a baccalaureate and a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota. During his novitiate, he obtained a master’s in philosophy from the Milltown Institute in Dublin. He later also earned a master’s degree in institutional development from Loyola University in Chicago (1993-1995) and a Ph.D. in education from Harvard (2000-2006).
Ordained a priest in 1994, he worked in Hong Kong in the Jesuit colleges of Wah Yan, and as a professor at the University of Hong Kong and at the diocesan seminary of the Holy Spirit. From January 1, 2018 until now he has been provincial of the Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus. Since 2017 he has been a member of the Diocesan Council for Education.
(Fr. Bernardo Cervellera is editor in chief of AsiaNews.)
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