Hong Kong faces big challenges, says its cardinal

The bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow SJ, addressed a large crowd in Parramatta on 15 September on the topic of “bridge-building.”

The charismatic cardinal, an intellectual heavyweight with a PhD from Harvard University, was on an Australian visit which took him to Sydney and Melbourne to give public talks and to visit local Chinese Catholic communities.

His talk in Parramatta was the latest in the “Bishop Vincent Presents” series of important international Catholic voices.

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For a prelate in Hong Kong in 2025, “bridge-building” is by no means a bland topic, especially for a successor of the fiery Cardinal Joseph Zen, who has continued in his retirement to make international headlines by denouncing the Vatican’s cautious rapprochement with Beijing.

But bridge-building – with Catholics suspicious of the synodality so dear to the late Pope Francis, with youth, with other religions, and with Beijing – was the theme of Cardinal Chow’s on-stage conversation with fellow Jesuit Fr Richard Leonard.

The cardinal seems the right man with the right tools for the job – liberal doses of empathy and respect for the other side.

Born in Hong Kong in 1959, he studied education and psychology before becoming a high school teacher.

He was ordained as a Jesuit in 1994 and wrote his Harvard PhD thesis on human development and psychology. He was the superior of the Jesuits’ Chinese province for three years before becoming a bishop in 2021 and a cardinal in 2023.

For an Australian audience, the elephant in the room was how the Catholic Church can co-exist with an increasingly authoritarian government in Hong Kong which must answer to the Communist Party in Beijing.

The Vatican has signed an agreement with Beijing, but there have been significant tensions. Fr Leonard asked the cardinal how bridge-building worked with an atheistic regime.

Cardinal Chow was surprisingly positive. There is no religious persecution, he insisted. “I want to invite any one of you, everyone, to come to Hong Kong and see for yourself,” he said.

“Beijing wants to keep religious freedom intact in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is important for China.”

The cardinal said that the Vatican’s diplomatic agreement was part of an on-going dialogue in which he was playing a part. He insisted that the situation was very complex and that observers should not force facts into a “dualistic paradigm.”

“Even in China, even within the government, they’re not just one voice, they’re different voices, as in any government,” he said.

The Chinese government takes the Catholic Church seriously and tries to understand how it works and what it believes. It even gets officials to study canon law, philosophy, and theology. The government is very well informed, he insisted.

Furthermore, even with a Communist government, it is important to be empathetic.

“Communists are human beings too, right? And they also have hearts that yearn for love, that yearn for respect, that yearn for understanding. OK, their approach, I don’t quite agree with it; it’s atheist,” he said.

“But they’re human beings and they have families. They have their own personal struggles, and their own desire for their country, which is not a bad desire. So if I have them see that I understand and appreciate that, it helps them to also start to understand where I come from and how I feel about the issue.”

In this on-going dialogue, the cardinal said that he counts on the experience of their shared humanity.

“In Genesis, God created us in God’s image, imago Dei. That is important, because it means that every human person has a good nature; there is a goodness in that person. So I count on that.”

This seems to be the polar opposite to Cardinal Zen’s approach. The emeritus cardinal was well-known for his exasperation with Pope Francis on a number of issues, but especially his Chinese diplomacy.

“The incredible thing is the invitation to trust the government!” he fulminated in 2019. “Is information on recent oppression measures missing from our superiors in the Vatican?”

Cardinal Chow said that the Western press had misinformed readers about Cardinal Zen’s clashes with the government. True, the aged 90-plus emeritus cardinal had been arrested and had appeared in court, but he was not languishing in jail. “Not one day was he imprisoned,” he insisted, “not one day was he under house arrest.”

Hong Kong is not an easy place for a bishop. Apart from walking a tightrope with the government, there are demographic issues.

After COVID and the suppression of the democracy movement, 300,000 Hong Kongers have emigrated. Cardinal Chow said that a whole generation of potential Catholic leaders had left.

Most of the priests, diocesan and religious, are foreign-born. As in other countries, young people find it difficult to relate to the church. Implementing synodality is challenging.

As Fr Leonard said at the close of the evening’s conversation, bridge-building requires the ancient virtue praised by St Thomas Aquinas, prudence.

“I try,” said Cardinal Chow. “It doesn’t always work; I’m not always successful; but I try.”