HONG KONG (SE): St. Francis Church, Ma On Shan, marked the 40th anniversary of its establishment on October 6 with a Mass celebrated by John Cardinal Tong Hon, apostolic administrator of Hong Kong. Earlier in the day, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing concelebrated the morning Mass with parish priest Father Manohar Jyothi and former parish priest Father Placid Wong Kwok-wah. In advance of the feast day, a novena was prayed from the end of September.
Franciscan priests and sisters began serving the miners and the poor people in Ma On Shan Hill in the 1950s. St. Joseph’s Chapel was set up on the hillside in 1952, while St. Francis’s Church was set up downhill later in 1955. The diocese raised it to the status of a parish in 1979.
In 1984, the original building of St. Francis’s Church was demolished in response to a government development plan, which allocated another piece of land to rebuild the church.
For over 10 years, the Sunday Masses were celebrated in Ma On Shan St. Joseph’s Primary School at Heng On Estate. The present church building was completed in 1996.
Father Jyothi told the Kung Kao Po on October 3 that as the number of marriages and infant baptisms have been increasing recently, two members of the parish council have been assigned to deal with the formation of young families.
Kwok Yuk-chi, the first president of the parish council in Ma On Shan, recalled that there was only one Mass at St. Joseph’s Primary School when he first moved to the then new town in 1988. He recalled that although only around 40 people attended Mass, parishioners were really united and two outreach activities were held every year.
Kwok, now the vice-president of the parish council, said parishioners number around 5,000, while around 2,000 people attend the Masses.
An exhibition showcased the changes the parish has undergone since the 1950s and included items used in liturgies, photographs, as well as reports in the Kung Kao Po.
Lo Wai-kit, a young parishioner, recalled that he would clean the chapel together with Brother William Ng Wai-lit during his secondary school days. As far as he knows, the parish priests still stay in contact with the children of the miners.
