Jesuit priest Stephen Tong has been named provincial superior of the Society of Jesus’ Chinese Province, which includes its missions in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and mainland China, this week.
In a letter, Bishop-elect Stephen Chow, head of the province until his appointment as bishop of Hong Kong on May 17, said Father Tong will start his “new mission” on November 1.
“We thank our Lord for giving us a new provincial …. And we should give thanks to Father Stephen Tong for his generous availability for this arduous and challenging mission,” said Bishop-elect Chow.
“My brothers and partners, your ardent support and closest cooperation with Father Tong is crucial for the fruitfulness of God’s Mission through our Province, united among the four regions,” said the bishop-elect.
The letter said Father Tong was born and brought up in Macau in a non-Catholic family as the youngest son among five siblings.
He finished his basic and secondary education in Macau and was baptized Catholic before he flew to Taiwan for his tertiary education in Civil Engineering in 1981.
Father decided to join the Society of Jesus in 1990 and was later sent to Singapore to enter the Novitiate, and then studied Philosophy in Manila.
He taught for two years in the Jesuit school, Estrala de Mar, in Macau, as part of his Regency years.
In 1996, he began his Theology studies in the Holy Spirit Seminary College and was ordained deacon in 1999.
He spent two years in Boston to pursue the his licenciate in Theoloy and was ordained priest on June 24, 2000, in Macau.
His first priestly mission was in Manila in 2001 as Pre-novitiate director and Socius to the Novice Master.
From then on, Father Tong’s ministry focused on formation and Ignatian Spirituality.
After finishing the Tertianship training in 2004, he was sent to Xavier House, Cheung Chau, in Hong Kong to be it s director.
He became province consultor since 2010 and then superior of the Hong Kong Jesuit community since 2012.
