The bishop of Hong Kong has called on Catholics to renew their trust in God’s promise and to become “messengers of hope” as the Church opens the Advent season.
“Hope is the essence of the Advent Season, when we prepare ourselves to celebrate the first coming and anticipate the second coming of our Messiah,” said Cardinal Stephen Chow, SJ, in his pastoral letter.
The prelate said the end of the Jubilee Year of Hope does not diminish the central role of Christian hope in guiding the faithful. He warned that believers often place trust in promises that cannot endure.
“Our Christian hope does not count on the transient promises offered by the secular world. These promises, not coming from God, cannot last and certainly not beyond this lifetime.” Some suffering, he added, comes from “our misplaced hope,” he said.
The diocese will launch its anniversary observance on Dec. 8 under the theme “Messengers of Hope,” which Cardinal Chow described as both an identity and a mission.
“We are all recipients as well as called to be agents of hope,” he wrote. “Together, we are pilgrims of hope in this disillusioned world.”
Cardinal Chow said the diocese has been laying groundwork for synodality since 2021, guided by the global synod’s emphasis on “Communion, Participation, Mission.”
He highlighted the method of “The Conversation in the Spirit” as a practical way for the faithful to pray, listen, and discern together.
The approach, he said, shows “its reliable potential for laypeople, religious, and clergy alike” to seek convergences and understand divergences.
“Tensions need not be destructive but can be creative,” he noted, calling them an invitation “to go deeper for a new, unifying understanding.”
The diocese plans to train parishes in the method in 2026 and convene a diocesan assembly in 2027 “to discern our pastoral plan as a developing synodal Church.”
Responding to Hong Kong’s shifting demographics, the diocese will establish two pastoral teams for English-speaking and Putonghua-speaking communities.
Cardinal Chow said this reflects Hong Kong’s “international significance” and the Church’s mission of “bridging,” as well as the growing number of migrants and students.
“They are our sisters, brothers, and potential members sent to us by our Good Shepherd,” he wrote.
Cardinal Chow urged parishes to give young people meaningful participation in decision-making, saying they “need to know that their communities value their inputs and insights, not only for their physical strength.”
He called attention to the elderly, many of whom face illness and isolation. They remain “our treasures connecting us to our history and cultural heritage,” he said.
Echoing Pope Leo XIV, the cardinal said the poor and marginalized are integral to the Church’s identity. “We must include the poor and the marginalised, not allowing them to become forgotten or discriminated against,” he wrote.
He also urged Catholics to pursue ecological conversion by studying Laudato Si’ and taking concrete steps to reduce waste.
Reducing plastic use, he said, is a practical starting point as plastic particles “contaminate our environment, pollute the food chains, and inevitably damage our health.”
Cardinal Chow invited the faithful to bear hope for those who struggle to find it.
“We are called to be messengers of hope, not really for ourselves but for one another,” he wrote. “Our world needs the People of God to show them that love and hope are real.”
