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Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong Wikipedia

The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong (天主教香港教區) is an ordinary diocese of the Roman Catholic Church headed by the bishop, Joseph Zen. He is the one who governs it in his own name. The bishop, though he is subject to the Pope|Roman Pontiff, is not the vicar of the latter. The Diocese takes its name from the holy see|see city, the community where the bishop resides and his cathedral is located.

There are about 239,400 Catholics in Hong Kong. They are served by 309 priests, 60 brothers and 519 sisters. There are 52 parishes, comprising 40 churches, 30 chapels and 28 halls for religious service. In education, there are 320 Catholic schools and kindergartens which have about 286 000 pupils.

On April 11, 1946, Pope Pius XII established the episcopal hierarchy in China, raising all the apostolic vicariate|apostolic vicariates to Dioceses, Hong Kong among them, through the following Apostolic Constitution in Latin, sent to each Vicar Apostolic together with a letter from the Apostolic Internuncius, Mgr. Anthony Riberi in the summer 1946. Since then, the Hong Kong Diocese is directly responsible to the pope. Enrico Valtorta became the first bishop of Hong Kong.

In 1969, Bishop Hsu Chen-Ping Francis|Bishop Francis Hsu (徐誠斌主教) became the first Chinese bishop in Hong Kong after the resignation of Lorenzo Bianchi.

On May 29, 1988, John Cardinal Wu|John Baptist Wu (胡振中), the 5th bishop, was named a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals by His Holiness Pope John Paul II. He is the only ever cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal from the Hong Kong diocese.

On August 18, 1991, an Open Forum on "Elections 1991", jointly organized by the Council of Priests, the Justice and Peace Commission, the Central Council of Catholic Laity and the Catholic Institute for Religion and Society, was held in the nine constituencies of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories in order to encourage the faithful to take an active part in the direct elections to the Legislative Council on 15 September. Church organizations also made a similar appeal to the faithful and ordinary citizens through publications, questionnaires and advertisements in newspapers.

On April 15, 1993, the diocese was re-divided into nine deaneries. Council of Priests reorganized with all the deans included as ex officio members.

After the death of John Cardinal Wu|Cardinal Wu on September 23, 2002, his coadjutor bishop|coadjutor Joseph Zen became the 6th bishop of Hong Kong.

On August 17, 2003, eight members of the radical Rainbow Action gay rights group disrupted a Sunday Mass at the Catholic Cathedral. They were provoked by the Church???s opposition to homosexual marriages, as set forth in a document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on 3 June 2003, entitled "Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons". Subsequently, Bishop Zen met with representatives of various gay rights groups to clarify the Church???s stand and reaffirmed that he had no discrimination against homosexual persons as such.

On July 8, 2004, the Legislative Council passed the Education (Amendment) Bill Under the New Ordinance, and would be effective on 1 January 2005, every aided school is required before 2010 to form an incorporated management committee (IMC) whose members should include elected representatives of teachers, parents of students and alumni, as well as other independent persons, with a view to promoting a school-based management. It was the concern of the Church that, as a sponsoring body, she would no longer be empowered in the future to supervise the schools under her sponsorship, nor be able to achieve her goals and objectives in Catholic education. On June 5, 2005, Bishop Zen announced that if the Legislative Council pass the donation to support schools to create incorporated management committees on July 8, 2005, he would appeal against the decision to the court. After the Government decided to give up some main argued points, the Diocese decided that it will support the motion.

Last Modified:   2005-11-07