HONG KONG (SE): Visitors to the Hong Kong Book Fair this year were treated to a brief review of the history of the Church in Hong Kong through a photography exhibition marking the 175th anniversary of the foundation of the diocese which was on display above the Catholic booth.

HONG KONG (SE): People who have signed up to attend World Youth Day in Kraków, Poland, from July 26 to 31, were commissioned by John Cardinal Tong Hon in a ceremony held at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception on July 10.

Cardinal Tong said during the ceremony that he hopes that the young people making the trip will be able to have an encounter with God during their pilgrimage and come back to Hong Kong imbued with the enthusiasm to spread the good news of Jesus Christ in society.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

HONG KONG (SE): The Society of St. Vincent de Paul Central Council Hong Kong organised a visit for around 100 people to the residences of torture claimants and asylum seekers in Hong Kong on June 25 in order to promote a greater knowledge and better understanding of their real situation and plight.

The event was part of a campaign to support asylum seekers and torture claimants in Hong Kong and was organised by the ad hoc committee of the Jubilee of Mercy and the St. Vincent de Paul.

HONG KONG (SE): The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Knights of Malta) conferred the insignia of Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion on John Cardinal Tong Hon, the bishop of Hong Kong, during a Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on June 29.

Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung, the spiritual director of the Hong Kong community of the Knights of Malta, blessed the insignia while Denis Chang Khen-lee, the president of the Hong Kong community, invested the cardinal with the honour.

HONG KONG (SE): A married couple, Jonathan Yim Chi-ngai and Katherine Cheung Yu, were commissioned to go to Cambodia with the Hong Kong Catholic Lay Missionary Association by the bishop of Hong Kong, John Cardinal Tong Hon, at a Mass celebrated in the church of their parish of the Annunciation on June 12.

The couple signed a three-year contract with the lay mission association and are the first married couple ever to go on foreign mission under its auspices.

HONG KONG (SE): The Dominicans celebrated the 800th anniversary of the foundation of their order with a Mass on May 29 at Rosaryhill School in Wanchai (St. Albert’s Priory), Hong Kong, in which four of their members were ordained priests and one a deacon.

HONG KONG (SE): A packed Christ the King Chapel roared its approval as Arjay Venus, a seminarian from the Missionary Society of the Divine Word, was presented to the bishop of Hong Kong, John Cardinal Tong Hon, for ordination to the deaconate on June 9.

HONG KONG (SE): Over 900 people joined John Cardinal Tong Hon, the bishop of Hong Kong; Auxiliary Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung  and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing; and diocesan chancellor, Father Lawrence Lee Len, at a welcoming event for the newly-baptised of the diocese organised by the Hong Kong Central Council of Catholic Laity at the Southorn Stadium, Wanchai, on May 1.