RELIGION
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with their families on small-holdings, work that is carried out in close co-operation with the Prisons Department. The third is vocational training for more than 300 students in four trades, together with basic education in English and elementary Mathe- matics for all, which is carried out in the community centre at Wong Tai Sin.
Other work done by the churches jointly includes the Haven of Hope Sanatorium; the Self-Help Projects Committee's work in setting needy families on their feet with the means to earn their own livelihood; the College Student Work Project, which supports students through College in return for regular hours of service to social welfare projects; and co-ordinated relief for flood, typhoon, and fire victims.
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The Salvation Army and Lutheran World Service also devote inspiring work to a wide variety of projects in these fields, but nearly all the churches are at work in service to the under- privileged; and their variety and vigour present a fascinating picture from St James' Settlement in crowded Wan Chai to the second Wesley Village on a hill-top near Tsuen Wan, from day nurseries and girls' homes to roof-top activities, with feeding and medical centres in many different places.
The Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong is as old as the Colony itself. One hundred and twenty years ago, on 22nd April 1841, Pope Gregory XVI officially established the Roman Catholic Prefecture Apostolic of Hong Kong by a papal decree with Msgr Theodore Joset as Prefect. Some years earlier missionaries from China and Macau had come to the island, to serve the spiritual needs of the many Roman Catholics among the soldiers stationed here, but the Church was still a 'seedling' when Msgr Joset arrived and erected Hong Kong's first Catholic Church, a matshed, on a site which is now the intersection of Wellington and Pottinger Streets. By the end of the year a much larger church and other facilities were needed. The matshed was replaced in 1842 by a more permanent building and the first Catholic School in Hong Kong and a seminary for the education of Chinese priests were simultaneously erected next to it. Before the new church and school were completed, Msgr Joset was dead. He was only 38, but many died young in the early years of Hong Kong.