On October 1, the gates of Holy Spirit Seminary in Wong Chuk Hang opened wide, and more than 8,600 faithful, friends, and well-wishers walked through them. Climbing Welfare Road almost as pilgrims, they found more than a beautiful building. They found a living chapter in the story of the Church in South China.
This Open Day was part of the diocesan celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, the 95th anniversary of Holy Spirit Seminary, and the 55th anniversary of the Holy Spirit Seminary College of Theology and Philosophy. In every sense, it was a walk down memory lane.
The seminary began as the South China Regional Seminary, with roots in China’s first Plenary Council, convened in Shanghai in 1924 by Archbishop Celso Costantini, the first apostolic delegate to China. The council resolved to form local clergy to serve the local Church. With funding from Pope Pius XI, the Regional Seminary opened in 1930, welcoming seminarians from more than 10 apostolic vicariates across Guangdong and Fujian.
The seminary’s path was never easy. War brought shelling and shortages, and the seminarians took refuge in Macau until 1945. When the mainland could no longer send students, the Holy See entrusted the site to the diocese in 1964, and Holy Spirit Seminary has formed our priests there ever since. Through war and social unrest, the seminary never closed its heart to its neighbours. It fed Aberdeen’s fishing families before the war and ran roadside schools for newly arrived children in the 1950s and 1960s.
Its red walls, green tiles, and upturned eaves crowned by the cross express the Church’s long desire to be fully Catholic and fully at home among the Chinese people.
Most striking was who came. About half the visitors were not Christians, a quarter were Protestant brothers and sisters, and a quarter were Catholics. For many, it was their first time inside a seminary. Such openness is itself evangelisation, with seeds sown quietly in the hope that they will one day bear fruit.
The day’s success was no accident. Credit goes to an organising committee that worked in a true synodal spirit, and to the seminarians. Volunteers from parishes, schools, lay associations, diocesan bodies, the Catholic Scouts, and first-aid teams gave days of their time. Storms had been forecast, yet the sun shone, and many received it as a grace.
Yet an open day is not an end in itself. Our prayer is that the gates opened on October 1 will open other doors in the hearts of young people who may hear God’s call to the priesthood or consecrated life. A seminary is measured not by its buildings but by the shepherds it forms.
The clergy, seminarians and students of the Seminary College who served so tirelessly that day were living proof that such a calling brings joy. But we can pray that some who climbed that hill this year will one day return, not as visitors, but as faith-leaders, catechists, priests and religious. jose, CMF
