A New Bishop for Hong Kong

First Things, 24 May 2021

Today’s day of prayer for the Church in China is necessary. The CCP will soon test whether those prayers are backed up by words and firm resolve in Rome.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI established a “day of prayer for the Church in China” on May 24 each year. That day is marked in China as the feast of Our Lady of Sheshan, the patronal shrine of the nation in Shanghai. In various parts of the universal Church the date marks the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians. This year the day of prayer happily coincides with the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, which falls the Monday after Pentecost.

There is much to pray for. The Catholics of China are a beleaguered flock, and their new shepherd will soon be facing the ravenous wolves. Last week, Father Stephen Chow Sau-yan was named the new bishop of Hong Kong. He is so reluctant to take the job that he will not assume office until next December, even though the usual canonical rules require him to start in four months. 

The Church can set the date of his ordination. Beijing’s communist regime will set the date of his imprisonment. The Vatican would be wise to use the time between now and then to decide how it will handle that eventuality. The future of the Catholic Church in China may depend upon it.

President Xi Jinping's regime has made it abundantly clear that it intends to pulverize whatever remnants of religious liberty remain in China. The persecutions of the Falun Gong are well known. The concentration camps for Uighur Muslims are internationally documented. The anti-Christian measures have ranged from sacrilegious (mandating that Xi’s picture be displayed in church) to indoctrinating (insisting that catechetical materials follow the principles of “Sinicization”) to tyrannical (banning children from going to church altogether).

Hong Kong’s Catholic bishop died unexpectedly in January 2019. In September 2018, the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China had concluded a secret “provisional” agreement on the appointment of bishops in China. Shortly after that, authority over religious affairs in China was transferred to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The provisional agreement, still secret, was renewed in October 2020. The Holy See now has, de facto, an agreement with the CCP on the appointment of bishops.

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