HONG KONG (SE): The Order Of Friars Minor [OFM] mourned the loss of Friar John Baptist Tse and Friar Thomas Chen, who both passed away on September 15, the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Friar Tse died at North District Hospital, Sheung Shui, at the age of 92, after 66 years of religious life.
Friar Tse was born in 1930 in Hong Kong. In 1956, after graduating from the Seminário de São José, Macau, and two months after his priestly ordination, he entered the Franciscan Order in Italy and subsequently made his solemn profession in 1960. He received a doctorate in moral theology from the Antonianum in Rome.
Invited by Blessed Gabriele Allegra, he went to work at the Sociologicum in Singapore, translating Church social teaching documents, and later became the editor of the Chinese Catholic periodical Hai Sing Pao. After returning to Hong Kong, he served as the editor-in-chief of the Kung Kao Pao and taught at the Diocesan Catechetical Centre.
Friar Tse served the order in various capacities, ranging from guardian, regional minister, regional economo, school supervisor for St. Bonaventure High School and College and St. Bonaventure Catholic Primary School, vicar provincial and minister provincial. He worked tirelessly to construct the new provincial house in Taishan, Taipei.
He will be best remembered as the founding pastor of St. Bonaventure Parish, Tsz Wan Shan, establishing various praesidia of the Legion of Mary and serving as their spiritual director. Dedicated to the apostolate, he was frugal but generous to the faithful, gentle and courteous, witty in speech, diligent in work, and well loved by the people to whom he ministered.
During his retirement years, he resided at the Friary of Studium Biblicum and finally at St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged, Sheung Shui, since August 2019. He went into a coma after dinner on September 15 and was immediately transferred to the hospital. He finally died of heart failure.
Friar Placid Wong will celebrate the vigil Mass at eight o’clock on September 29 at St. Bonaventure parish. Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing will celebrate the funeral Mass the next day at 10.00am, followed by a burial ceremony in St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Happy Valley.
Friar Chen [baptismal name Michael] passed away during his 70th jubilee year of priesthood, at the ripe old age of 95. Friar Chen was born in Xitiangong Village in Lu’an-fu [now Changzhi City], Shanxi, China, in 1927. He received the Franciscan habit and the religious name Thomas [Aquinas] in 1944 in the Dong’ergou Novitiate, Shanxi. Following his solemn profession in 1949, he went to Spain and Italy to further his studies during the war.
He was ordained to the priesthood in Spain in 1952 and received a doctorate in political economy in 1958. He was invited to join the Sociologicum Antonianum, founded by Blessed Father Allegra in Singapore. In 1965, he served as the principal of St. Francis High School in Neihu, Taipei, Taiwan, for two years. Subsequently, he taught at Ng Wah College in Hong Kong and served as the principal of St. Bonaventure’s High School and College in Hong Kong. In 1990, he moved back to Taiwan, offering his service in parish ministry in Taipei City and Taoyuan City.
Although he was over 70-years-old, inspired by the Holy Spirit [as the Rule of St Francis says], he volunteered joyfully to the appeal of the minister general to continue the centuries-old missionary presence in Morocco for several years.
In 2016, he officially retired, staying at the Daxi Friary in Taiwan. Despite his deteriorating health, he strove to live the gospel life in the fraternity as he had vowed.
