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RELIGION AND CUSTOM
several areas, among them the San Po Kong parish, showing how parish facilities can be put to the service of the youth in the evening.
Among Catholic hospitals, the biggest, Caritas Medical Centre in So Uk Tsuen, completed its plan of providing 850 beds last year. St Teresa Hospital on Prince Edward Road has started construction of a new wing.
Church personnel engaged in pastoral, educational and welfare work in Hong Kong include 342 priests, 110 religious brothers and 756 religious sisters, 33 religious Orders and congregations representing 30 nationalities.
There are at present 225 Catholic primary and secondary schools with an aggregate enrolment of 191,477 pupils.
Today the Catholic Church operates six hospitals with a total of 1,962 beds and 30 clinics, spread out in various parts of the Colony, including one boat clinic that serves the fishermen of Aberdeen. It runs five multi-purpose social centres, seven vocational training centres, three youth holiday centres, five children's play centres, 18 day nurseries, four orphanages and 15 hostels and homes. Construction costs of most of these projects have been met by grants from overseas bodies both Catholic and non-Catholic, while day-to-day running expenses are raised locally.
Hong Kong's Jewish community worship at a_synagogue in Robinson Road constructed in 1901 on land given by Mr Joseph Sassoon and his family. Mr Sassoon built the synagogue in memory of his mother Leah and it is known as the Synagogue ‘Ohel Leah'. The Jewish Recreation Club and the resident rabbi's apartments are on the same site. There are about 200 people in the congregation and they belong to families who originally came from the United Kingdom, China, India, Eastern and Western Europe, and the United States.
There are more than 8,000 followers of Islam in Hong Kong, most of them Chinese who have come to the Colony during the past two decades. The other members of the Muslim community are mainly from Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Persia and from neighbouring regions. They gather for prayers at the Shelley Street Mosque, on Hong Kong Island, and at the Nathan Road Mosque in Kowloon.
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