![Cardinal Tong [centre], flanked by Cardinal Zen [left], Auxiliary Bishop Ha [right], and Bishop-elect Chow [extreme right], celebrate the anniversary Mass with past rectors and priests who have taught at the seminary and college, on October 2.](http://examiner.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/BANNER-DSC_0686-675x360.png.webp)
HONG KONG (SE): A thanksgiving Mass was celebrated by John Cardinal Tong Hon, the apostolic administrator of Hong Kong, on October 2 at the chapel of the Holy Spirit Seminary, Aberdeen, to conclude the year-long celebrations marking the 90th and 50th anniversaries of the Holy Spirit Seminary [formerly the South China Regional Seminary] and the Holy Spirit Seminary College of Theology and Philosophy.
Before the Mass, video about the activities in the past year was presented in the auditorium for teachers and alumni to watch, while a memorial book published to commemorate the anniversaries was on sale.
Cardinal Tong was assisted by Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, Bishop-elect Father Stephen Chow Sau-yan, rectors of the seminary in the past decades, as well as priests who have taught in the college and the seminary.
Cardinal Tong, who received his formation in the seminary and has served the Church for over 50 years, encouraged people to respond to vocations and make disciples of all people. He expressed his gratitude to the pioneers who established the seminary and for the formation given by the Holy Spirit Seminary College of Theology and Philosophy, which was set up half-a-century ago after the Second Vatican Council, encouraging the participation of the laity and local priests.
An oath-taking ceremony was held in which participants promised to contribute to the development of the Church, the seminary as well as the college. They were then commissioned by Cardinal Tong.
At the end of the Mass, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, rector of the seminary, thanked God for blessing the seminary and the college, as well as people who have journeyed with the two institutes.
He recalled that the construction of the seminary started in 1930 at the time of the Great Depression when funds were insufficient. “It later needed to overcome various trials including wars and the migration wave before the handover. But God has been with us,” Bishop Ha said, adding that he was sure that there will be more and more anniversaries to celebrate.
Father Peter Choy Wai-man, president of the Holy Spirit Seminary College of Theology and Philosophy, said the seminary as well as the college carried on the mission of the South China Regional Seminary in promoting the inculturation of the Church. On the other hand, the college has been working to make theology more accessible to the laity.
Father Choy said one milestone of the college is the licentiate course in theology launched in 1994, which gives the laity a chance for in-depth formation. He thanked alumni who returned to the college to teach and enrich the education provided by the college.
Mary Yuen Mee-yin, professor of social ethics at the college, recalled that she studied religion so as to better serve the Justice and Peace Commission in the 1990s. She went on to take social ethics and attained a doctoral degree. She said she likes to encourage her students to look into the situations of the marginalised using her experiences in Hong Kong Catholic Commission for Labour Affairs.
The seminary and the college organised a series of talks on faith and inculturation, as well as exhibitions to mark their anniversaries.
To promote vocations, priests were interviewed about their seminary lives and the videos were posted on its Facebook page every month since last November [Sunday Examiner, May 2].
