Chow: Hong Kong's 'bridge' Church towards mainland China

A 65-year-old Jesuit, he has led the Catholic community of the great metropolis for more than three years, putting the challenge of unity and education of young people first in a difficult social context after the events of 2019. He knows the dioceses of the People's Republic of China well, having already made three official trips to Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Card. Stephen Chow Sou-yan, a 65-year-old Jesuit, is the face of the Church in China among the cardinal electors of this conclave. He has led the diocese of Hong Kong for more than three years now, having been consecrated bishop on December 4, 2021 in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

His installation took place almost three years after the sudden death of his predecessor, Msgr. Michael Yeung Ming-cheung, who passed away in January 2019 just a year and a half after his appointment and precisely at a very delicate moment for Hong Kong society.

With him, the local Catholic community has found a leader with full authority and authoritativeness. Pope Francis then created him cardinal in the consistory of 2023, making Hong Kong a diocese that simultaneously has three cardinals: next to him, in fact, two of his predecessors in their eighties are still alive, Card. Joseph Zen Ze-kiun - who at 93 has nevertheless arrived in Rome actively intervening in these days in the General Congregations - and Card. John Tong-on.

Stephen Chow was born in Hong Kong in 1959 into a Catholic family. He has an educational curriculum of unusually excellence: he studied to be a leader.

He has a degree in psychology and one in philosophy obtained from prestigious American universities. Having entered the Jesuits in 1984, he first studied in Ireland, and then returned to Hong Kong to continue his theological studies at Holy Seminary College. He was ordained a priest in 1994. He went on to study education and leadership at Loyola University of Chicago and Harvard University.

Always committed to academic education, since 1995 Chow has carried out his ministry in the two locations of Wah Yan College in Hong Kong - prestigious high schools run by the Jesuits - of which he became supervisor. Bishop Stephen has great attention to the issues of Catholic education and its freedom.

A professor at Holy Spirit Seminary College, from 2018 until his episcopal appointment in 2021 he was at the head of the Chinese province of the Society of Jesus, which in addition to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan also includes mainland China.

It is precisely this assiduous knowledge and frequentation of the Church in China - together with the new phase opened in 2018 by the Agreement between the Vatican and Beijing on the appointment of bishops - that led him to enhance the natural role of the Church of Hong Kong as a bridge towards mainland China.

He also wanted the image of a modern Hong Kong bridge, that of Tsing-Ma, in his episcopal coat of arms next to the motto "Ad maiorem Dei gloriam" ("For the greater glory of God") which is the motto of the Jesuits.

"The mission of the Church - he explained already on the occasion of his ordination - is to be a bridge between the different parts to help them meet by walking along it".

This is what Cardinal Chow has tried to do in these years of ministry in a Hong Kong strongly marked by the demonstrations of 2019 followed by the harsh repression of Beijing and the exodus of thousands of young people and families, who have chosen to move abroad. In a highly polarized context, his call was for unity, beyond differences.

Addressing young people in an interview with Mondo e Missione in 2021, he said: “Imagine how you want the Church to be; how you want the world to be; how you want Hong Kong to be. Share your vision with others. Work with those who share your vision. But don’t listen only to people who think like you. If you do that, you will also end up in their same dead ends. You must also talk and listen to people who are different from you, and even those with whom you don’t even get along. Only in this way will you gain different perspectives”.

In these three years he has made three important visits to the People’s Republic of China: the first to Beijing in April 2023, the second in May 2024 to the province of Guangdong, where he met the local Churches of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the two metropolises of Southern China overlooking the Pearl River Delta like Hong Kong.

Finally, last February he went to Shanghai on a visit whose most striking image was his prayer for the health of Pope Francis together with the local bishop Joseph Shen Bin, in the sanctuary of Our Lady of Sheshan. Cardinal Chow also participated in both sessions of the Synod in Rome in 2023 and 2024, in both cases together with two bishops from dioceses