HONG KONG (SE): Father Louis Lee Kwok-hung, the former editor of the Catholic Truth Society is celebrating 50 years of his priestly ordination this year. The diocese will honour him and all the priests and religious who celebrate the jubilees of their ordination or consecrated life on December 7 in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Caine Road.
In an article published by the Kung Kao Po, Father Lee recalled his publishing ministry of over four decades in the Catholic Truth Society. He regards translating foreign language books into Chinese as one of his difficult jobs as an editor. Yet, he is content with his ministry, as he believes that both written words and pastoral work are good ways of formation, while being assigned with a mission to strengthen the faith of the laity through the press.
In a recent publication from the Centre for Catholic Studies about the oral history of the Church in Hong Kong, Father Lee shared that he was baptised when he was in form three. He thought of joining the seminary when he was in form five but his parents opposed the idea as they expected him to work and support the family.
After his graduation from the Northcote College of Education in 1959, he worked as a teacher until 1964 and supported the family financially. Yet, his initial desire to become a priest was still alive and was determined to respond to his vocation. So he joined the seminary in the same year.
Five years later in 1969, he was ordained a priest thanks to his rector who believed that he should be ordained in his early 30s, which was quite late at that time, considering that priests were usually ordained in their 20s!
Father Lee hoped to be assigned to manage schools after his ordination, as he had academic background. However, Bishop Francis Hsu Cheng-ping assigned him to be the editor of the Catholic Truth Society. As its editor, he decided on the direction of its publications according to the catechism of the Church and the focus of the diocese.
As the Catholic Truth Society published books in Chinese, Father Lee met with a lot of challenges. He had to deal with the translation of books from English, which had first been translated from another foreign language. The help from translators and his own proficiency in Latin, and limited skills in German and French were not good enough to infer the real meaning of the author.
In order to better equip him to tackle the challenges in the ministry, Father Lee picked up a Master’s degree in Religion and Ethics from the Catholic University of Leuven, in Belgium, in 1971, which helped him a lot in his job later.
Father Lee said after the Second Vatican Council, which stressed inculturation, the Church’s demand for liturgical books in Chinese increased substantially. The Truth Society translated books about spirituality and catechesis, as well as Biblical literature for the benefit of formation of the laity.
He recalled that the sales of spiritual books were quite good in 1970s, and around 2,000 to 3,000 copies could be sold. But the demand for spiritual books decreased with the change of reading habits. He shared that the difficulty of running the organisation was that it could hardly get the right to translate a book if it cannot print 1,000 copies and the printing cost was also quite high.
Father Lee was a regular contributor to the Kung Kao Po as a columnist and led retreats and talks for parishes as well. He explains that he loves reading as he believes it inspires him to think.
He likes to read books and periodicals about Chinese culture, spirituality and catechesis, and some of them may need a perusal from the beginning to end so as to get at the deeper inner meaning.
