Beijing’s top Catholic cleric begins 5-day historic visit to Hong Kong to ‘promote exchanges and interactions’ between dioceses
- Bishop Joseph Li is on ‘reciprocal visit’, the first by Beijing’s top Catholic cleric since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule, following counterpart’s trip to capital
- Hong Kong’s Cardinal Stephen Chow visited Beijing earlier this year, saying it is important to love both country and church
Beijing’s top Catholic cleric began his historic visit on Tuesday to Hong Kong, where he planned to meet his local counterpart to “promote exchanges and interactions” between the two dioceses.
Bishop Joseph Li Shan’s first visit to the city was at the invitation of Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, the head of the Catholic diocese of Hong Kong, who visited Beijing in April.
Li visited the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Caine Road in the morning, accompanied by Reverend Dominic Chan Chi-ming.
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The five-day visit, the first by Beijing’s top Catholic cleric since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, comes amid seemingly improving relations between the Vatican and mainland China, following the renewal of an agreement governing the approval of bishops.
The Catholic diocese of Hong Kong two weeks ago said Li’s trip was a “reciprocal visit” based on an invitation from Chow.
“Bishop Li will meet with the bishop of the diocese of Hong Kong and different diocesan offices to promote exchanges and interactions between the two dioceses,” it said.
In April, Chow paid a five-day visit to the country’s capital, where he celebrated mass, visited the tomb of Matteo Ricci, the 17th-century Italian Jesuit missionary, and met officials from the National Religious Affairs Administration.
Hong Kong’s bishop said it was important to love both the country and the church during a mass he celebrated at Beijing’s St Joseph’s Church, also known as Wangfujing Catholic Church.
“Everyone would like to see their own country do well, no one wants it to do badly,” Chow said. “I think it’s everyone’s duty to be patriotic if you’re a resident in Hong Kong or on the mainland.”
Chow was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in Rome in late September, a role which the city’s diocese leader said was an important bridge between “China and the universal church”. He was the fourth in the city’s history to hold the title.
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The Vatican is the only European state to have formal diplomatic links with Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory. The Vatican has been trying to improve ties, severed in 1951, with Beijing.
In 2018, the Vatican and the mainland took a step towards repairing relations when a provisional agreement on the appointment of Chinese bishops was reached.
The deal was a bid to ease a long-standing divide on the mainland between an underground flock loyal to the pope and the state-backed official church. For the first time since the 1950s, both sides recognised the Pope as supreme leader of the Catholic Church.
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But critics of the 2018 agreement have accused the Vatican of selling out the underground church and pushing it to pledge allegiance to government-controlled Catholic bodies that have vowed independence from the Holy See.
The Vatican last month said the contested provisional agreement had been renewed.
In October, Chow also said he believed Beijing was open to “better dialogue” with the Vatican and the process should “move faster”.
“I cannot speak for the Chinese government, but I know that people in the Chinese government, in China, want to have better dialogue,” he said.
