Agenzia Fides

Hong Kong (Agenzia Fides) - The Evangelization, the promotion of vocations of priests and men and women religious, the treatment of non-Chinese Catholics of the diocese and the Church in China: are the four basic pastoral duties of the diocese of Hong Kong indicated by the neo Cardinal John Tong, during a Mass of thanksgiving for the appointment as Cardinal, which he celebrated on March 3 in the cathedral dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. According to reports from the Kong Ko Bao (Chinese version of the diocesan bulletin), the Mass was concelebrated by His Exc. Mgr. John Hung, Archbishop and President of the Regional Episcopal Conference of Taiwan; His Exc. Mgr. Jose Lai, Bishop of Macao; Mgr. Paul Russell; His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Zen, Bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, and a hundred priests. A thousand faithful, as well as pastors of the Protestant and Anglican Church of Hong Kong took part in the celebration.
During the celebration, Cardinal Tong stressed the need to celebrate a Mass in English in every parish, to give maximum pastoral attention to foreign migrant workers. According to he Cardinal "one third of the 540 thousand Catholics in Hong Kong are not Chinese, and they are in particular Filipino domestic workers. Currently 35 out of 51 parishes have Sunday Mass in English. But every parish should have a Mass in English to meet the spiritual needs of immigrant workers. If for some parishes it is impossible, at least it should offer the facilities of the church or school for the religious celebration of Catholic immigrants. " (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 08/03/2012)