By Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, OFM
Hong Kong’s latest emigration wave is still increasing, even two to three years after it started. Some commentators say that it may continue for several more years! According to government statistics, in the three years between 2019 and 2021, there was a net migration of more than 130,000 people from Hong Kong, but in the first quarter of 2022 alone, it was more than 140,000. Needless to say, many of your friends and relatives may also be among them. From the popularity of recent international emigration seminars, overseas property exhibitions, and so on, we know many people indeed want to leave Hong Kong.
The number of Catholics who have left is not small. They may not be in the tens of thousands, but at least several thousand. How did they decide to leave? What is the role of faith in their choice to leave or stay? Or did faith play any role?
I have given several talks on emigration and faith and could feel the deep struggles of many brothers and sisters, and I have realised that both those who choose to leave and those who stay face worries, anxieties and insecurity. Of course, the two decisions are not the same. If decisions are made out of faith, then they must be made for happy and positive reasons, namely, love, rather than for negative reasons like escaping, or out of frustration and fear. Not that these factors cannot be present, but they should not be the main ones.
For example, people can choose to emigrate because they love their children and want to choose a suitable environment for them to grow up in, or they choose to stay because they love their elderly parents and want to take care of them in their old age. Of course, sometimes there may be conflicts and tensions among the different choices of love, and this requires a good deal of discernment with a prayerful and open heart so that they can sensitively listen to the guidance of God, who may give them a hint, primarily through their family members. They also must honestly look at themselves, including their abilities and minds. If married, they must respect their spouse by communicating well and reaching a consensus before taking action.
In any case, out of our faith, we should learn from Jesus Christ and live thoroughly in love. Christians should make decisions for positive reasons wherever they are and whatever they do, for only in this way can we have the impetus to move forward and the meaning of our lives. On the contrary, decisions made out of negativity can never make us feel joyful or motivated. In other words, we either leave with a mission, or we stay with a mission. What is the mission? It is to testify to the love of God in ourselves wherever we are. I want to encourage you with the following scripture passage:
“…all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles … Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word” [Acts 8:1, 4].
