On the evening of November 10, the Diocese of Hong Kong held a reception at the Caritas Communiy Hall, Caine Road, to mark the elevation of Stephen Cardinal Chow, SJ, to the College of Cardinals. Among the guests were the chief executive of Hong Kong, Johh Lee Ka-chiu, government official, legislators, members of the diplomatic corps, Hong Kong’s religious leaders, priests and religious of the diocese and other guests.
In his remarks, Cardinal Chow spoke of building trust, “building on convergences while honouring divergences or differences”, and said that the Catholic Church is ready to collaborate with people of goodwill.
Following are the cardinal’s remarks:
The Honourable Chief Executive John Lee, esteemed civic and religious leaders, honourable diplomats, legislators, government officials, partners in mission, and all our esteemed guests,
In order not to make my speech unduly long, I hope you do not mind me using English mainly which is probably the largest denominator among our esteemed guests this evening. I will give a short summary in Cantonese after this.
I am most grateful for your presence at this reception, acknowledging and honouring my new mission as a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. However, I can feel that most people whom I know are happier than me with my appointment. It is because the appointment came to me as a total surprise. I was not aware of it until after the public announcement was made.
It is the desire of the Holy Father Pope Francis who picks me to be his advisor and assistant on matters of the universal Church. But being a bridge for the Church in Mainland China and the universal Church in particular. It is a delicate but most meaningful mission.
But I can take solace in the goodwill of the Vatican and the Chinese government. As long as there is goodwill, other challenges, even distrust can be overcome with reasonable risk taking and God’s grace. Building trust is, indeed, a risky business, but irreplaceable if we want to move forward as a body.
Some of you are aware that I have recently returned from Rome after participating in a month-long universal meeting known as the “synod on synodality,” which means processing and journeying together through in-depth listening, sharing intentionally with each other, building on convergences while honouring divergences or differences. Trust is an underlying building block.
Participants came from all over the world. Altogether over 400 participants with a majority of cardinals and bishops. But for the first time ever, priests, religious, lay women and men, young (19 years old) and old with full voting rights have participated at the synod. This is a daring attempt to bring the Church into greater communion among the People of God, that is laity, religious, and clergy. The overall experience of the synod is generally encouraging.
However, I should let you know that opinions on some critical subjects, such as sexual morality, women, ordained ministry, marriage and family, the role of laity vis-à-vis the hierarchy varied a great deal to the extent of bipolarity.
It was through in-depth empathic listening and honest but respectful sharing that we could identify the convergences while acknowledging the divergences among us. Divergence is, in fact, invitation for us to go deeper with greater openness in search for a possible common ground, while holding tensions from those divergences with respect in the meantime. Honestly, we need to learn, and we are learning. Many of us found the process itself transforming.
At the end, it was because of our deep desire to see our Church moving forward with the world, that we were able to look forward to working together on the challenging problems, based on our convergences or commonalities, in our next session scheduled for next October.
The Catholic Church is far from being perfect. We certainly have our serious defects and problems, such as sexual abuse and financial transparency. But we are learning. We are doing our best to own and rectify the issues with love and hope. Becoming a synodal Church in this horrifically divided world intoxicated with hate and violence is our way of responding to an even deeper desire for unity and reconciliation in all of us.
Finally, not being naïve about its negative impacts, religion does carry positive moral influence with which the government and institutions can join force combating against life-sapping ailments, such as hate, loss, helplessness, self-destruction, etc. And I want to assure you that the Catholic Church with the mission of sharing the inclusive love of God has been doing our part and is ready to collaborate with people of goodwill.
May God bless all of you and your loved ones!
+ Stephen Cardinal Chow, SJ
