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RELIGION AND CUSTOM
Wellington and Pottinger Streets. He established a seminary for training Chinese priests and persuaded religious sisters to come to Hong Kong to start schools and creches and to carry out welfare work.
In 1867, the Pontifical Institute of the Foreign Missions of Milan took charge of the Prefecture, with Monsignor T. Raimondi as Prefect - later becoming Bishop. This institute remained responsible for the Church in Hong Kong for 102 years. In 1969, responsibility was transferred to the Diocesan clergy, with Bishop Francis Chen-peng Hsu as the first Chinese Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong.
Bishop Hsu died in 1973 at the age of 52. He was succeeded by Bishop Peter Wang-kei Lei who died the following year, aged 51. The third Chinese Bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop John Baptist Cheng-chung Wu, was consecrated and installed by Cardinal Angelo Rossi in the Hong Kong Catholic Cathedral on July 25, 1975.
In addition to its pastoral and apostolic work, the Church engages in a wide variety of work in education, health care and social welfare. There are now 310 Catholic schools, with more than 274,000 students. Vocational education is being developed. Catholic social and health services include eight social centres emphasising voca- tional and adult education, six hospitals, 13 hostels for students and workers, a maternity home, 20 general clinics, six dental clinics, two mobile clinics, 17 day nurseries, three homes for the aged, two homes for the blind, and many self-help clubs and associations.
Roman Catholics in Hong Kong number about 256,000. They are served by 332 priests (123 Chinese and 209 of other nationalities), 111 Brothers (49 Chinese and 62 of other nationalities) and 781 Sisters (470 Chinese and 311 of other nationalities) belonging to 23 different religious congregations. There are 54 parishes with resident priests. Services are in Chinese, with a few churches providing some services in English. At St Joseph's Church, on Hong Kong Island, all services are in English.
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In recent years there has been greater involvement of the laity in all matters. In order to promote better co-ordination between various groups, they are organised under a body called the Central Council of the Catholic Laity which includes such bodies as the long-established Society of St Vincent de Paul, the widely-spread Legion of Mary which has units of its organisation in nearly every parish, and such professional groups as the Catholic Doctors Guild and the Catholic Nurses Guild. A variety of youth organisations such as the Catholic Students Press Group, the Christian Life Com- munities, and many others are co-ordinated under the Catholic Youth Council, a parallel organisation to the Central Council of the Catholic Laity.
Protestant
The Protestant community is made up of almost 50 denominations and independent groups. There are the familiar major denominations such as Adventist, Anglican, Alliance, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Salvation Army and Pentecostal. The Church of Christ in China represents the Presbyterian and Congregational traditions.
These churches are responsible for more than 250 primary schools, about 130 middle schools, and two post-secondary colleges. The training of church leaders is carried out by several seminaries and Bible schools.
The Christian churches sponsor a wide variety of service programmes. These include clinics, homes for the aged, vocational training centres, family service centres, aid for