The Season of Advent represents a time of waiting. But, for the diocese of Hong Kong, the long period of waiting is over. After a near three-year-long wait, it has a bishop—Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan SJ. The See fell vacant on 3 January 2019 with the death of Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung from liver failure. The Holy See appointed bishop-emeritus, John Cardinal Tong Hon, as the apostolic administrator for the “interim period.”
The episcopal ordination and installation of Bishop Chow on Saturday, December 4 as the ninth Bishop of Hong Kong must be a relief for the 82-year-old Cardinal Tong who led the half-a-million-strong Catholic Church in Hong Kong during one of the most turbulent periods in its history. The diocese will ever remain grateful to him for the witness of life and for his leadership in humility and simplicity.
So what do we expect from our bishop? Pope Francis, during his first Chrism Mass after his election, called on the world’s priests to bring the healing power of God’s grace to everyone in need, to stay close to the marginalised and to be “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep.”
Bishop Chow shared a short anecdote with us from his time as the supervisor at Wah Yan College. “It was during 1996 to ‘97. My superiors permitted me to do a PhD in Business Administration and the University of Minnesota accepted me. I was ready to go, but the students were going through a lot of uncertainties and anxieties regarding their future in 1997.” Father Chow decided not to pursue his studies in order to stay back with his students in those times of transition for Hong Kong. Indeed, we can vouch for a shepherd who lives with the smell of the sheep in Bishop Chow.
During the opening session of the plenary assembly of the Italian Bishops’ Conference on November 22, Pope Francis released a new list of The Beatitudes of the Bishop. It gives practical guidance to bishops worldwide and to the men who will become bishops in the future.
Bishop Chow was quick to share the story on his Facebook wall, requesting friends and faithful for their prayers. The timing of the release of the new set of beatitudes could not have been more appropriate.
The Beatitudes of the Bishop calls a bishop blessed when he:
- makes poverty and sharing his lifestyle;
- does not fear to water his face with tears, to mirror the sorrows of the people;
- considers his ministry a service and not a power, making meekness his strength;
- does not close himself in the palaces of government, instead, seeks to fight at the side of people for the dream of the justice of God;
- has a heart for the misery of the world, who does not fear dirtying his hands with the mud of the human soul;
- wards off duplicity of heart, avoids every ambiguous dynamic, dreams good even in the midst of evil;
- works for peace, accompanies the paths of reconciliation, sows in the heart of the presbyterate the seed of communion, who accompanies a divided society on the pathway of reconciliation, who takes by hand every man and every woman of goodwill in order to build fraternity; and
- for the gospel, does not fear to go against the tide, making his face “hard” like that of Christ heading to Jerusalem.
Let us pray that God nourishes these qualities, and more, in Bishop Stephen in his new role of a shepherd. Jose cmf
