HONG KONG (Agencies/KKP): Reverend Maria Anthony Leung Po-tak, a Salesian born in Hong Kong, was ordained a deacon at St. John Bosco Parish Church in Taipei, on February 25, the feast day of the first Salesian martyrs, Ss. Luigi Versiglia and Callistus Caravario. Bishop Thomas Chung An-zu, Archbishop of Taipei, ordained him to the order of deacon. Father Joseph Ng Chi-yuen, the provincial superior of the Salesian Chinese Province, and around 20 priests from Taipei concelebrated the Mass.
Deacon Leung’s mother, aunt, family and friends from Hong Kong, his teachers and classmates at Fu Jen Faculty of Theology of St. Robert Bellarmine, as well as members of St. Dominic Church’s Cantonese Mass group, attended the ceremony. He thanked people who have been supporting him in Hong Kong and in various places in his journey of vocation.
“You are all here to share your love with me so that I can witness the love of God in you. Looking back, I have had to overcome many difficulties, and I thank all those who have supported and accompanied me along the way,” the newly-ordained deacon said during the ceremony.
After he had been recommended by Father Ng, Archbishop Chung laid hands on him. Deacon Leung was assisted by his mother in putting on his stole and the dalmatic.
Deacon Leung expressed gratitude in Cantonese to his family members in Hong Kong, the Salesian Family and lay people, and in English to his friends who had served with him in the United Kingdom, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
The motto he chose for the ceremony was from Psalm 139:10—“Even there your hand guides me, your right hand holds me fast”. Deacon Leung recalled that this had been the bible verse he remembered when he stood under a lone tree in winter in the warmth of the sun and felt protected by God during his service in Africa.
Father Ng invited people to pray that more young people would follow Deacon Leung, who bravely responded to God’s call.
Deacon Leung grew up in Hong Kong and graduated from Tang King Po School, Kowloon, where he was led by Salesians to renew his faith and find his religious vocation.
After completing his novitiate and first profession in the Philippines, he returned to Hong Kong in 2011. He made his permanent vow in Hong Kong in 2017 and was commissioned as a missionary in the United Kingdom.
