RELIGION
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Hong Kong, was opened. The Chinese Catholic weekly 'Kung Kao Po' was started in 1928 and in 1933 the Catholic Truth Society was established for the publication of Catholic literature.
During the Second World War bombs struck the Cathedral and St Joseph's Church, Canossa Hospital and St Paul's Chinese School was destroyed and a church in Kowloon City was levelled. A rapid reorganization began immediately after the liberation, with the establishment, in 1945, of the Catholic Centre. The publication of the Sunday Examiner, an English Weekly was begun, a Public Relations Office was opened and the publication of an annual Catholic Directory was initiated. Among the many new institutions opened was the Biblical Institute for the study and translation of the Bible.
Then the Vicariate of Hong Kong was raised to the status of a Diocese by Pope Pius XII, on 11th April 1946, and Bishop Henry Valtorta, the 4th Vicar Apostolic, became the first Diocesan Bishop of Hong Kong.
The Roman Catholic Diocese, like the other denominations, has helped the Colony's social and refugee problems. The Organization of Catholic Charities and the Hong Kong Catholic Social Welfare Conference were established and the office of Catholic Relief Services and the Catholic Resettlement Bureau were opened. A second Technical and Trade School was started. The Church has taken a leading part in the establishment of new schools, youth work, welfare centres, and homes for the aged, in the care of the crippled and blind and in vocational training, and has assisted with feeding programmes and house building. Lay associations, such as the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the Catholic Women's League, the Chinese Catholic Club, the Guilds of Catholic Doctors and Nurses have also taken an active part in this work.
Since 1951, Bishop Lawrence Bianchi has been head of the Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong. There are at present 66 Roman Catholic churches and public chapels and 156 schools with an enrolment of 85,000 pupils. Among the welfare institutions of the Church are four hospitals with 613 beds, 18 free clinics and dispensaries which treated last year 527,390 patients, three crêches, five orphanages, two homes for the aged, one home and school for the blind, and a 'Good Shepherd' home. There are 55