Nobel Laureate returns to St. Joseph’s College

A young Charles Kao at work in his lab. Photo courtesy of the Chinese university of Hong Kong

St. Joseph’s College in Central, welcomed one of its most distinguished past pupils, 2009 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Charles Kuen Kao (高錕), for the celebration of its 135th anniversary on February 7 this year.
Kao, who is dubbed the father of fibre optics, is credited with contributing greatly, through his research, to the development of the broadband transmission age. He studied at St. Joseph’s in the 1950s and flew from the United States of America to be present at the anniversary celebration......

---

Scrutinies in preparation for baptism

Hong KOng (SE): Bishop John Tong Hon conducted the rite of scrutiny on March 7 at St. Francis of Assisi church, Shek Kip Mei, at a ceremony attended by 1,700 candidates for baptism. He encouraged those who are awaiting their baptism to meditate on God’s word constantly.
He said, “Our faith calls us to turn from sin. Today, Jesus will enable all of you to cast away the things of the past that are inconsistent with your faith, such as obsession with material things and bad habits. One should constantly renew oneself and this is the route by which we draw closer to the Lord.”
Two more scrutinies will be held on March 15 and 21. According to the statistics issued by the diocese, 3,024 people will be baptised in parishes at Easter.

---

Defending priestly celibacy against idolatry of the body

Celibacy “is certainly not something for weak characters,” said Manfred Lutz, chief of psychiatry at a German hospital and a consultant to the Congregation for Clergy......

---

Schedule of English Holy Week Services

A message from the Catholic Church Lenten Campaign - 5th week

New heavens, new earth

Often, when I think of death, I imagine passing from this world to heaven. There, I find my loved ones or await the reunion with those who will, sooner or later, come after me. I have a vague notion of living under the grace of God and in full-consciousness of the truth and his great glory. As nice as that picture is, I am nevertheless apprehensive that the waiting time for my loved ones to rejoin me could be long; I would be missing them. Then I console myself that when I die, I will have already run out of time, which belongs to this world only, so that there is no time for waiting in heaven; they ought to be with me at the very next instance. I’m relieved.
It has occurred to me that I hardly think of the end of the world, the Last Judgment, the resurrection of the body and soul, and life in the renewed and much better recreated world that God promises. The whole notion seems rather distant and remote; despite no guarantee that the end of the world will not happen in the next instant. I suppose it does not matter whether I pass away from this world prematurely or at that very end; I’m not in control of the timing anyway. But I know I am here, not by my choosing, but by the grace of God and my parents, and I’m glad to be here. I know I wish to stay longer in order to live a meaningful life, so that when my time runs out, I can face the Lord God and give a adequate accounting for it. Time suddenly becomes pressing again; there is a mission to fulfill.
I know that it is not enough to believe in God and hope to go to heaven, I need to know how to live a meaningful life. We know from searching our own consciences and from the way shown us by Our Lord Jesus Christ, that there is but one way to live this life meaningfully—love God, love our neighbour. It is the sum of all commandments which enables us to please God, to be reconciled with him and enter his kingdom in heaven and live in his glory in the promised new world.
Who are our neighbours? I know that all humans and all creatures of God can be our neighbours, but they do not become so until we interact with them and establish some kind of a relationship. When asked who our neighbour is, Our Lord told the parable of the Good Samaritan who saw the poor, injured, suffering man by the roadside, ignored and by-passed by God-knowing people who did not want to have anything to do with him. Yet this stranger felt for him and took care of him, expending his own time and money with no ulterior, self-serving motive.
The neighbourliness taught by Jesus has an inherent sense of care and responsibility, as well as selfless service. It starts with a willingness to relate and is realised by interaction. It is the will of God that we prepare for the eternal kingdom he has prepared for us by cooperating with him to establish his kingdom in our temporal, historical world through the way he has revealed to us.
If we shut our eyes and our hearts to people, including other creatures and the environment around us, we will have no neighbours and we will not be able to fulfill our Christian mission and commandment, and thus we will not have the pass to the kingdom of God in heaven and transit to the promised, eternal, new earth.
Some people say Christianity is a personal, but never private affair. It has to be put into action. Christians have a charitable mission to fulfill in this life, to serve our neighbour with love, putting faith into practice, becoming personally, not superficially, Christian. It is through charitable relationships that we transform the entire temporal world into the kingdom of God, to prepare ourselves and the world for the promised new heavens, new earth under his eternal kingship.

Catholic Church Lenten Campaign
Organising Committee