By Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, OFM
“Street friends” are people who make their homes in the streets and alleys, commonly known as street sleepers. Hong Kong is a bustling city full of luxury properties. According to statistics released earlier this year, one in every 13 people in the city have assets worth more than $10 million. At the same time, however, the official number of street sleepers exceeded 1,500 last year, and there is a clear upward trend due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
I have visited a few places with my brothers and sisters from different parishes, including a small area of cubicles set up at the Kwun Tong Ferry Pier, a makeshift structure in a pedestrian subway in Happy Valley, the roadside in North Point and the gathering place by the public toilet in Victoria Park. In fact, the places I have visited only account for a small part. The truth is there are street friends in every district.
On one hand, when I walk up to my street friends with a small token in my hand, which can be a tangerine or a cup of noodles, and try to start a conversation, I feel a sense of sorrow in my heart because the scene before me is so similar to what happened in Hong Kong when I was a child, in the 1950s and 1960s, under the tide of refugees.
On the other hand, I appreciate the positive response from many parishioners as some continued to pay visits even at the height of the pandemic, organising brothers and sisters to go to different districts to reach out to street friends on a regular basis under various restrictions, to offer care, to share supplies and to build friendship. Some of our street friends were so moved that they came back to the church to pray and join in catechism classes.
Pope Francis, in his message for the World Day of the Poor this year, pointed out that there are two kinds of poverty mentioned in the gospel, one is humiliating and cruel poverty, derived from distress, injustice, exploitation, violence and inequitable distribution of resources. The other is the poverty of Christ, the willingness to be poor, as Christ was, by giving of himself in love. This kind of poverty frees one so that he can let go of unnecessary anxieties or fears, and focus on what is necessary—God.
When we serve our street friends who have no place to live, we are not helping them. The pope says by reaching out their hands, they are in fact rescuing us from our insensitivity. Rescuing them from material poverty helps us to enter into the poverty of Christ. In other words, it helps us to embrace the Christ in them.
Indeed, because of the need to serve the street friends, many parishioners were mobilised and organised. Some contributed money, while some contributed their time and effort.
In the midst of the pandemic and the wave of emigrations, parishes are still vibrant and energetic, thanks to the help of our brothers and sisters in the street.
