HONG KONG (SE): Reverend Philip Shi Yuqian of the Society of Jesus, was ordained a priest through the laying on of hands by John Cardinal Tong Hon, apostolic administrator of the diocese of Hong Kong, on August 14 at St. Ignatius Chapel, Kowloon. A surgeon by profession, the newly ordained priest requested all those present to pray for him, as he needed a lot of prayers and support to have the wisdom, courage and determination to carry out his ministry as a Jesuit missionary.
The ordination Mass was concelebrated by bishop-elect and provincial superior, Father Stephen Chow Sau-yan; Monsignor Alvaro Lzurieta y Sea, from the Holy See Study Mission Hong Kong; Father Stephen Tong Chak-long, superior of Xavier House, Cheung Chau; Father Robert Ng Chi-fun and around 15 priests from the diocese.
Father Chow recommended Deacon Shi to Cardinal Tong as the elect for the order of priesthood, and the cardinal explained the priestly duties to the elect. Shi made his promise to be committed to his duties to follow Jesus Christ, shepherd the flock, proclaim the Good News and be obedient to his bishop and superiors.
After the cantor led the singing of the litany of the saints, invoking their prayers on behalf of the elect, Cardinal Tong and all the concelebrating clergy imposed hands on and prayed for him. His mother, Iris Gu Zhengli, and Father Chow then assisted him in vesting with the priestly stole and chasuble, and Shi found himself in the embrace of his proud mom.
The elect knelt before the cardinal who anointed his hands with holy Chrism, symbolising the priest’s distinctive participation in Christ’s priesthood. Both the cardinal and his Jesuit confrères at the altar gave him a fraternal kiss, a sign of welcoming Father Shi into the priesthood of Jesus Christ, which they all share.
At the end of the Mass, Father Shi delivered a message and sharing. After he was ordained a transitional deacon on June 27 last year in Hong Kong, he went to Rome in September to study Italian and pursue his master’s degree in Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He recounted his difficulties in studying with Italian as the medium to explain texts written in Latin—a language he knew nearly nothing about.
“There were times I looked at the door of the classroom and wanted to escape,” he chuckled. Spending eight hours every day to study became routine for fear that he might fail in the exams! He expressed gratitude to teachers who encouraged him in class and supported him.
Father Shi thanked Cardinal Tong, Father Stephen Chow, Father Stephen Tong, other Jesuit confrères along with his family and friends who came to the ceremony to support him.
While delivering a message on behalf of the Jesuits, the bishop-elect, Father Chow, expressed his gratitude to the parents of Father Shi who generously let their only son become a priest. Father Chow said he agreed with Father Shi that a shepherd with wisdom is needed at present.
Father Chow also thanked the choir, the lector, the altar servers and St. Ignatius Chapel for their support for the ceremony.
Father Shi told the Sunday Examiner that he studies canon law because the Jesuit community wants priests with this specialisation. He said there is a lack of teachers in canon law, as many experts in the subject have become bishops. However, he hopes to serve in Hong Kong after completing his studies.
Father Shi was born in Shanghai in 1983. On the fourth day after his birth, he was baptised by his grand aunt, a religious sister from the Society of the Helpers, because there was no priest to administer the sacrament. He is a sixth generation Catholic on the side of his mother’s family and was brought up by his devout grandparents. He received confirmation in 1990 and often served as an altar server or a lector in church. (Sunday Examiner, 12 July 2020)
From surgeon to priest
Before joining the Jesuits, he earned a medical degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2006. In 2008, he obtained a Master of Surgery degree and became a surgeon.
He liked his profession but discovered its limitations, as it could not guarantee life for people. He added that as a doctor he could help many patients, but he could only help one person at one time. However as a priest, he could serve the flock of Jesus and save many lives together.
After spending four years discerning his vocation, Father Shi left Shanghai for Manila and joined the Jesuits in 2010. He came to Hong Kong in 2012 and studied Cantonese for three months, and studied philosophy at the Holy Spirit Seminary. He then learned French and was assigned to Chad, Africa, in 2014 to serve in a Jesuit hospital for a year as a surgeon and to train interns.
With the limited resources in Chad, he had to improvise to do surgeries in times of emergencies. He recalled that he was once required to do replantation surgery for a patient whose arm was severely broken and he had not done it before. He was not sure if he would succeed but he finally did. “God has his plans which we cannot foresee, but I am sure that he is with us,” he said.
“The name of the hospital is the Le Bon Samaritan Hospital. I thought maybe we can be a Samaritan every day as God is the one who helps us first when we are hurt,” he said.
From 2015 to 2017, he went to a Jesuit secondary school in Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao, the Philippines, to work as a school chaplain, a class teacher as well as to teach religion and ethics. He returned to Hong Kong in 2017 and completed his theological training.
The mother of the newly-ordained told the Sunday Examiner before the ceremony that she regarded the priestly vocation of her son as a great blessing and she was thankful for the formation of the Jesuit community as well as Father Shi’s grand aunt.
She recalled that when he told her of his desire to join the seminary, she was reluctant to let him go. But he said that while he could earn a lot of money to support the family as a doctor, he felt he would be empty-handed before God, as he believed he would have done nothing for God his whole life. She was then reduced to silence and began to understand the determination of her son.
Gu said Father Shi only informed his father, who is not a Catholic, about his wish to respond to his vocation during lunch one month before he joined the seminary. His father was unwilling to accept it at first, but later that day said that he would support the decision as long as it made his son happy.
People lined up to receive blessings and take pictures with Father Shi after the Mass. The altar servers of Wah Yan College Kowloon and Hong Kong presented an apostolic blessing from Pope Francis to Father Shi, which he received with immense gratitude.
