HONG KONG (SE): Father Paul Kam Po-wai, vicar general, recalled that he lost sleep when he received the invitation from Bishop Stephen Chow Sau Yan, SJ, to consider accepting the office of vicar general in September last year.
“Is this my calling? I did not consider it only a job but a calling from God. I needed to know if it was the will of God for me to do so,” he recalled.
Father Kam shared that it was the second time he had experienced a sleepless night discerning a calling that he had never expected. He had a similar experience when he was invited to think about his priestly vocation by his parish priest, the late Maryknoll Father John Hines, at Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish, Kwun Tong, when he was a 19-year-old altar server.
He remembered that his struggle in September was that he had just returned from his missionary time in Cambodia and was happy carrying out his pastoral plans at Holy Redeemer Parish, Tuen Mun, where he had been parish priest for only three months.
He said that as a priest, he has never stopped promoting vocations and believes his missionary time in Tanzania from 2003 to 2006, and in Cambodia from 2018 to 2021, has had a positive impact on young people as many visited him to see how they could help and thus thought about their own mission.
Another reason for the hesitation was that he was used to pastoral and missionary work, but not the administrative work of the diocese. However, after prayers and discernment, he finally accepted the invitation.
One small challenge as a vicar general is having to wear a clerical collar, as he likes polo shirts the best. However, he discovered that he could overcome this problem by ordering some polo shirts for priests with collars from the Philippines!
Father Kam, who assumed the office of vicar general on December 12, shared that he was glad to work with Bishop Chow, who was a good leader with wisdom and leadership skills. He was impressed by invitation to share and offer a reflection at the end of the meeting of the Diocesan Curia, which is a beautiful Jesuit tradition.
Through my missionary life, the laypeople could do reflections about their own lives. I saw this as a process of sowing seeds for vocation
Father Kam
He shared that the door of the office of the bishop was always open, encouraging the curia and the staff to freely share different issues about their work with him.
Father Kam is now the chairperson of the Diocesan Vocations Commission and in charge of the coordination work of the parish affairs in the New Territories, Diocesan Youth Commission, the Hong Kong Catholic Commission for Labour Affairs and Diocesan Pastoral Centres for Workers, as well as the Diocesan Commission for Pastoral Services to the Disabled and Diocesan Pastoral Centre for the Disabled, among other duties.
He said that as a priest, he has never stopped promoting vocations and believes his missionary time in Tanzania from 2003 to 2006, and in Cambodia from 2018 to 2021, has had a positive impact on young people as many visited him to see how they could help and thus thought about their own mission.
“Through my missionary life, the laypeople could do reflections about their own lives. I saw this as a process of sowing seeds for vocation,” he said.
Two meetings of the Diocesan Vocations Commission were held three months after he became chairperson, and it has decided to conduct a vocation campaign for the whole month of May in response to the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on the fourth Sunday of Easter which falls on May 8 this year.
Starting from May 7, an image of Mary the Mother of Vocations will be brought to four different parishes where Masses, prayer meetings and sharing sessions about vocation will be held during that week. Whether they are in person or virtual will depend on the pandemic gathering restrictions at the time.
Father Kam, who was also the chairperson of the Diocesan Youth Commission from 2009 to 2017, said the promotion of vocation calls for more interaction with young people so there can be room for more cooperation between the youth commission and the vocations commission through jointly-organised activities such as online prayer meetings or retreats.
He stressed that the example of good parish priests could help vocations, just as the late Father Hines inspired his vocation in Kwun Tong. However, he believes parish priests nowadays are too busy with administrative work or other ministries, and there is not much time to communicate or journey with parishioners.
Yet the vicar general believes vocations can be promoted through a strengthened parish life, which reminds parishioners not only to be aware of the presence of God in their lives but also their mission to evangelise.
While Masses and spiritual formation constitute basic parish life, a parish needs to reach out more to the community around it
Father Kam
“When people are aware of their missions as disciples, there will be more vocations,” he said.
He stressed that parish renewal is not a slogan. “While Masses and spiritual formation constitute basic parish life, a parish needs to reach out more to the community around it,” he said. He believes many people around a parish need its concern, such as students in both Catholic and non-Catholic schools, residents of elderly people’s homes and the homeless.
He shared that while serving in Tuen Mun parish, he worked with the labour commission to distribute daily necessities and virus-prevention materials to the needy, which was an outreach programme interested young people could join.
He observes that many parishes have now reached out to the needy through the distribution of quick test kits, masks, hand sanitisers and other daily necessities, which seems to be the best way to evangelise at present given the pandemic, as such activities are exempt from social distancing regulations.
The vicar general is also assigned to deal with parish affairs in the New Territories. So he pays regular friendly visits to parishes in the New Territories to show concern about the situations of parish priests on behalf of the bishop, which are brotherly gatherings among priests.
