HONG KONG (SE): Trappist Dom Clement Kong Hak-mun, passed away at 7.40 am on April 15, Good Friday. He was 85 and a resident-priest at St. Mary’s Home for the Aged. He was the first Chinese abbot to head the Our Lady of Joy Abbey of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance in Hong Kong. Thanks to his tremendous contributions as a lyricist and composer, he played an important role in liturgical music in the Chinese Catholic dioceses. His funeral Mass is scheduled for April 21 at the abbey.
Dom Kong was born in Hong Kong on 5 August 1937 during the Sino-Japanese War and he recalled that he had a tough but happy childhood.
An article posted on the website of the Sacred Music Commission recounted that he started to receive training in sacred music during his secondary school years, and he discovered he had a keen interest. After graduating from Form 5, he enrolled in Northcote College of Education, studying arts and music from 1956 to 1958. The two-year programme further strengthened his passion for music. He later joined the choir at St. Teresa’s Church, Kowloon, and showed his talents in singing Palestrina polyphonic hymns.
In the summer after he graduated, he visited Our Lady of Joy Abbey on Lantau and immediately fell in love with its quiet simplicity. He joined the Order of Cistercians in 1961.
In 1969, he made his permanent vow. In 1971, his superiors assigned him to study theology in Ghent, New York, the United States. During the three years of his studies, he collaborated with Father Chrysogonus Waddell to compose a collection of hymns for morning prayers and vigils following the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. He returned to Hong Kong in 1973 and was ordained priest by Bishop Peter Lei Wang-Kei. He was later involved in composing chants and hymns for the use of the Chinese Catholic community. His compositions are still popular and well-loved by the faithful today.
In 1984, he was assigned to Taiwan to help establish the Holy Mother of God Monastery, where he served until returning to Hong Kong in 1999. The Trappist monastery in Lantau was elevated to the status of abbey that year, and Dom Kong was elected as its first abbot and he was ordained, at a ceremony in the abbey, in January 2000 by John Baptist Cardinal Wu Cheng-chung.
His superior later allowed him to take a sabbatical leave in New Zealand for health reasons. Afterwards, he received musical training in Rome and returned to Our Lady of Joy Abbey where he held the position of the abbot until mid 2003.
In 2017, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, a concert of his compositions was organised for the alumnus of St. Louis School, Sai Ying Pun. It also marked the school’s 90th anniversary.
