MACAU (SE): The last Portuguese bishop of Macau, Bishop Arquimínio Rodrigues da Costa, died on September 12 in the Azorean island of Pico, Portugal.

In announcing the death of the 92-year-old bishop, Archbishop João Lavrador, from Azores, called it a “loss for the Church and for society.”

MACAU (SE): News that the Philippine Consulate General in Macau will open on Sundays from mid-September was described by the chairperson of Migrante-Macau, Emerlina de Lina, on local news programme TDM as a long awaited response to the consistent demands by locals for whom it is their only day off.

The consul general, Lilybeth Deapera, was quoted as saying the request has already been sent to Manila.

MACAU (SE): Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang said that he is quite mystified over a refusal by the mainland authorities to allow 60 students to come from China to study at the Catholic university in his diocese of Macau.

The revamped University of Saint Joseph had requested the extra students to boost its enrollment, as it is trying to increase its student body above its current level of 1,300, especially as new facilities are set to open next year in the newly developed Ilha Verde Campus.

MACAU (SE): Formerly an auxiliary in Hong Kong, Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang was installed as the 30th or 31st or 32nd bishop of Macau, depending how you count them, on January 23, at a Mass that had already been arranged to mark the 440th anniversary of the foundation of the diocese.

The outgoing Bishop José Lai Hung-seng, who is stepping down for health reasons, greeted the new bishop at the entrance of the Cathedral of Nativity of the Virgin Mary and welcomed him to the diocese.

MACAU (SE): On January 23, Macau, the City of the Holy Name of God, celebrated the 440th anniversary of the edict proclaimed by Pope Gregory XIII declaring the fledgling Portuguese settlement on the southern edge of China a diocese, which was to grow to be one of the most important Catholic influences in Asia.