In Hong Kong, the authorities may now be close to officially approving the diocese’s project for a Catholic University, an idea announced several times by Bishop Stephen Chow, created cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory on Saturday 30 September.
According to what was published by the Headline Daily – a popular Hong Kong newspaper – the Caritas Institute of Higher Education, the training institution promoted by the Catholic Church of Hong Kong and known above all for the training of nurses, has obtained the green light from the appropriate Council for the Accreditation of Academic and Professional Qualifications.
The responsible body would therefore have certified the presence of all the necessary requirements to elevate a higher education school to the rank of a university. Therefore, only the last step would be missing – the political one – with formal approval by the government, led by the chief executive John Lee.
If this permission were to arrive, a new private university would be born in Hong Kong, the third alongside those of Shue Yan and Hang Seng. This would be the first Catholic university which – as announced some time ago by the diocese – would take the name of St. Francis University, going beyond the scope of the health professions.
Wanted by the then bishop Francis Hsu in the Seventies, the Caritas Institute of Higher Education is already now – together with the Caritas Bianchi College of Careers (named after Mgr. Lorenzo Bianchi, a PIME missionary who was bishop until 1969 in Hong Kong after his imprisonment in China) – offers as a post-secondary training college courses on 35 different disciplines which also include social sciences, technologies and economics and is attended by approximately 2500 students.
The birth of a Catholic University in Hong Kong is a project to which today’s card. Stephen Chow had already worked when – before he became bishop – he was the local superior of the Jesuits.
The initial idea was to build a university from scratch in Fanling, in an area close to the border with the mainland, but it was officially rejected by the authorities for urban planning reasons. Hence, once he became bishop of Hong Kong, to relaunch the project by asking for the transformation of the Caritas Institute of Higher Education into a University.
Meanwhile – precisely in conjunction with the ceremony in which Chow received the cardinal’s hat in Rome on Saturday – the diocesan weekly of Hong Kong published one of his articles in which he returns to Pope Francis’ trip to Mongolia and the words dedicated to China at the end of the Mass in Ulan Bator.
“The handshake would have been better if Msgr. had been included. Stephen Lee, the bishop of Macao” writes, recalling the moment in which Francis called him and Card. John Tong and quoting another Chinese bishop present at the celebration.
“But the gesture – he continues – is quite clear: our Pope loves China and the Chinese people very much. And there is no contradiction for anyone who is a good Christian and a good citizen. Fundamentally, both identities should be able to coexist in harmony.”
“Both Pope Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI, made it clear that evangelization does not imply proselytism – he continues -. Evangelizing means bearing witness to the love of God, who watches over us and lifts us up when we are down.
For the Church to grow, we must attract others with our life testimony, so that they understand who we are and are willing to collaborate with us or allow us to collaborate with them for the common good.”
While reiterating that “Francis and his predecessors seriously tried to reassure the Chinese government about the Church’s mission of love”, he invites us not to forget the historical wounds of the years in which China “was exploited and attacked by foreign powers” and that “some missionaries” may also have played a role in these wounds.
As well as the difficulties created by the “government bureaucracy that exists in all countries”. “For this reason – concludes the card. Chow – we must pray seriously, be patient, sincere and consistent, and keep our hope in the unfailing love of God.”
