HONG KONG (SE): Father Louis Ha Keloon is retiring after 28 years of service as the Diocesan Archivist. He is scheduled to leave Hong Kong at the end of July for his native Mauritius, where he will spend his retirement. A thanksgiving Mass was celebrated at St. Francis Church, Ma On Shan, on July 11 for the 76-year-old historian.
During the Mass, Father Ha said although he is retiring from his ministries in Hong Kong, he would not stop working. He hopes to continue historical studies in Mauritius and to organise pilgrimages. He thanked God for giving him a chance to serve in his birthplace and invited those present to pray for him.
Quoting the gospel of the day in which Jesus sent his disciples two by two to go preaching with only a walking stick and sandals for the long journey, but without bringing food or a sack of money (Mark 6:8-9), Father Ha said, “Jesus is telling us that preaching may seem tough, but can be simple at the same time.”
Ordained in 1970, he spent 51 years of his priesthood in Hong Kong, although not serving in many parishes. He spent his time joyfully spreading the Good News through his duties in the diocesan offices. He invited those present to think about their way of spreading the gospel in their daily lives.
Father Ha left Mauritius at the age of four. He said people often know it for the sugarcane it produces. However, for him, the sugarcane reminded him of the hard work and tough life of the slaves from Africa. “So it tastes bittersweet, like the life of everyone,” he said.
The Mass was concelebrated by parish priest, Father Manohar Jyothi, and assistant parish priest, Father Timothy Yan Ho-fung. Father Jyothi expressed his joy that Father Ha lived in his parish from time to time when he needed to work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Father Yan thanked his former seminary teacher for his contributions to the studies of Church history, as well as social justice issues that have inspired priests over the past decades.
Besides handling English and Chinese languages with ease, Father Ha is well-versed in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, German and Portuguese.
Together with Father Patrick Taveirne of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, he edited three volumes of the History of Catholic Religious Orders and Missionary Congregations in Hong Kong in 2011. In 1998, Father Ha completed his doctoral dissertation entitled, The Foundation of the Catholic Mission in Hong Kong (1841-1994), which was published in 2014.
His book, The History of Catholic Mission in Hong Kong 1841- 1894, is a rare reference work, citing numerous historical documents written in various languages, kept in the Diocesan Archives, in the Vatican and by religious institutes in Europe.
When 175 years of evanglisation in Hong Kong and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the diocese were marked in 2016 Father Ha led the Catholic Centre for Catholic Studies in Hong Kong on a three-year project: History of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong in the 20th Century. The research programme conducted a comprehensive study of diocesan history, focusing on church architecture and social responses through oral history, literature review, field trips and in-depth interviews.
Father Ha was deeply concerned and outspoken about social issues and was the ecclesiastical advisor of the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission for many years. He was also a member of the Basic Law Consultative Committee from 1985 to 1990. He is well-remembered for being a part-time taxi driver for three years in the late 1970s when he sought to find out more about all walks of life in Hong Kong
From 2005 to 2009, Father Ha and other priests and academics also edited The History of Evangelisation in Hong Kong in five volumes, published by the Hong Kong Diocesan Ad Hoc Committee for the Year of Evangelisation. The pamphlets illustrated the history of missionaries in Hong Kong and provide enlightening background information on the missionary activities in the villages and urban areas.
He has been the Diocesan Archivist since 1993. In a recent online talk organised by Hong Kong Catholic History Research on May 23, Father Ha said, “An archivist has to compete with time as records of the past, which will then be historical documents in the future, have to be kept before it is erased by time.” He said he found the job meaningful and interesting.
John Cardinal Tong Hon, the apostolic administrator of Hong Kong, has appointed Peter Lau Chiu-yin as the new Diocesan Archivist. He will as sume the office on September 1. Lau was the Episcopal Delegate for Education before his appointment.
Father Ha was the director of the Centre for Catholic Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for over a decade and retired from the post in August 2019. In a previous interview with Kung Kao Po, he acknolwedged the efforts of the team at the centre in establishing a network with overseas scholars and inviting them to speak in seminars to promote an exchange of views on different studies (Sunday Examiner, 10 November 2019).
Father Ha was deeply concerned and outspoken about social issues and was the ecclesiastical advisor of the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission for many years. He was also a member of the Basic Law Consultative Committee from 1985 to 1990. He is well-remembered for being a part-time taxi driver for three years in the late 1970s when he sought to find out more about all walks of life in Hong Kong.
Father Ha was also the director of the Hong Kong Catholic Social Communications Office from 1985 to 1993 and later from 1999 to 2005; he was the editor of the Kung Kao Po in the 1980s and later its editor-in-chief. He was also editor-in-chief of the Sunday Examiner in early 1990s and then from 1999 to 2004.
The Sunday Examiner expresses its gratitude to our former editor-in-chief and we wish him a happy retirement!
