by Cardinal Stephen Chow, S.J.
Have you ever been a messenger for someone to relay an ‘important’ message? Usually, the process involves one party wanting to pass on something to another party through an agent. The agent, who is known as a messenger, must accept the mission before that “something” can be relayed.
It is not the responsibility of the messenger to ascertain whether the receiving party will respond as expected by the originating party. However, it is the responsibility of the messenger to understand in advance the what, when, where, whom and how related to the message.
As we come into the new year and the 80th anniversary of the diocese, every member of the diocese is missioned to be Messengers of Hope. We receive this mission as further development of being the Pilgrims of Hope. As messengers, we have faith in a God whose divine love we have experienced personally and collectively as a diocese over the past eight decades. With such experiential knowledge, we have become agents of hope in God.
Our predecessors and we have enjoyed God’s loving guidance, blessings, and protection at different periods and junctures of time as a Church in the territory. It has been a journey of evangelisation and a pilgrimage with hope. So, what has the diocese accomplished under the guidance and blessing of the Holy Spirit?
Of course, it is not feasible to list all the blessings our diocese has received from our Lord and the accomplishments we have made. Just let me mention a few blessings that come to mind:
We have promoted lay leadership and had women in the leadership roles for years. Parish pastoral councils, the Pastoral Council of the Diocese, lay-led commissions and institutions, different formation pathways for the laity, permanent deacons, etc., have been instituted for quite some time. Although we can see that each of these domains needs updating or restructuring due to the frequently changing contexts, we should be grateful that we have made these opportunities and institutions available years ago.
Some pastors even say that we do not need Synodality since we already have active lay involvement at the parish and diocesan levels. But we can imagine how the outcomes can be more effective and sustainable through the Catholic synodal way.
It is true that we have lost incoming lay leaders and their children through emigration, partly due to the enactment of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. As a result, the number of catechumens and baptisms has dropped to almost half of what it used to be. And these make us feel down and lost at times.
But these are exactly the temptations of the evil one to make us feel hopeless and dejected, focusing on the half-empty glass while overlooking the other half glass of blessings. God is the Lord of the present, not just the past and the future. And so are God’s blessings, which are very much present in the half-filled glass. It is, therefore, important for us to realise that every Catholic in Hong Kong is a blessing from God for anyone coming into our paths. Starting from our parishes, diocesan commissions and institutions, our familiarity and ease in engaging in Conversation in the Spirit will certainly help us discern for the mission and development of the diocese, as we participate in the process of the Diocesan Assembly in 2027.
As agents of hope in God, we will be sharing our blessings and hope with others in Hong Kong and beyond. The hope that tells us who we are, where we are going together, what and whom we are called to serve and how in synodality we are going to fulfil our missions.
+ Stephen Cardinal Chow, S.J.
