HONG KONG (UCAN): Italian-born Father Franco Mella of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, and along with other advocates attempted to lodge a petition at the Consulate-General of Japan and the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong seeking the abolition of the death penalty with representatives of the governments of both Japan and China.
 
Personnel at both locations refused to accept the petition from the petitioners who were singing and shouting slogans, on October 10, the World Day against the Death Penalty.

HONG KONG (SE): The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which has the longest history of a charity organisation in the Church in Hong Kong, has a tough mission, which is also a blessing, Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong, said, when he celebrated a Mass to mark the 155th anniversary of the society’s Central Council of Hong Kong and the feast day of its patron, St. Vincent de Paul, on September 27 at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, Caine Road.
 

HONG KONG (SE): A migrant rights group warned that the new policy of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on mandatory insurance will discourage employers from hiring Filipino workers and the burden will ultimately be shifted to the workers themselves.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): “Does it mean that other people working in Hong Kong cannot act or talk contrary to the government’s stance otherwise, will they be treated in the same way and be deported?” asked Jackie Hung, of the Justice and Peace Commission, following the Hong Kong government’s refusal to renew the work visa of respected veteran British journalist and Asia news editor for The Financial Times, Victor Mallet.
 

HONG KONG (SE): Foreign domestic workers who are assigned to the care of the elderly in Hong Kong are deprived of proper resting hours and many of them do not have adequate training, reveals a recent study conducted by the Mission For Migrant Workers (MFMW). 
 
The study showed that foreign domestic workers, although assigned with the tough task of caring for the elderly, are a neglected group whose needs are to be attended to. Some respondents even complained that they were put to work non-stop for one whole day.
 

HONG KONG (SE): A Jesuit educator par excellence and one of the most endearing figures of the Jesuit, Wah Yan College Kowloon, Father Harold Cosmatos Naylor passed away on October 4. As a dedicated educator, he has inspired generations of students at the Wah Yan College with his innovative teaching methods. 
 

God, was it for them that you sent me as your partner in mission in Hong Kong? How do you want me to serve them?” For Sister Corazon Demetillo, the director of the Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Filipinos (DPCF), these were the first questions she had in mind as she first arrived Hong Kong last year and saw so many Filipinos everywhere in Central.

HONG KONG (SE): On the 46th anniversary of the declaration of the Martial Law, Filipino groups in Hong Kong said they would never forget the atrocities committed by the regime of late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, showing their support of the thousands who protested all over the Philippines on September 21 against any attempt by Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, to return to dictatorship.
 

HONG KONG (SE): People were encouraged to live out Catholic social teachings with hopefulness amidst adversity at a talk and a prayer service in memory of Archbishop Oscar Romero, organised by the Justice and Peace Commission, at St. Andrew’s Church, Tseung Kwan O, on September 9.