ENG-1963 — Page 389

RELIGION

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replace the original mat shed mission and a seminary opened for the education of Chinese priests, thus laying the foundation for the education and welfare programme that has always been an integral part of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong. Religious sisters of the congregation of St Paul de Chartres came from France to open Hong Kong's first Catholic hospital, a Catholic school and an orphanage that trained girls in home-making skills. The Colony's first trade school, called the West Point Reformatory for Homeless Boys, was also established by the Catholics.

In 1867 the Prefecture Apostolic of Hong Kong was entrusted by the Holy See to the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME), which had sent missioners to Hong Kong nine years earlier, and in 1874 the Prefecture was raised to a Vicariate with Msgr Timoleon Raimondi, PIME, as Vicar Apostolic of Hong Kong. At the turn of the century Bishop Raimondi extended the work of the Catholic Church in the New Territories and St Joseph's Church and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral were built on Hong Kong Island. As the Colony developed the Catholics expanded their health services, offered institutional care to the orphaned and aged poor, and provided more trade, technical and general education.

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The cultural life of the Church began to develop in 1928 with the starting of Kung Kao Po, a Chinese Catholic weekly news- paper. The Catholic Centre, opened after the second world war to serve the liberation forces, now houses Kung Kao Po, the Sunday Examiner, the Catholic Truth Society, a book and liturgical dis- tribution centre, a chapel, a library, and many other social, reli- gious and cultural facilities. The Vicariate was raised to a Diocese on 11th April 1946, and under the administration of Bishop Lawrence Bianchi, PIME, the Catholic community of Hong Kong has risen from 43,000 in 1952 to some 206,000 today.

The increase in schools has been on an even greater propor- tionate scale. Just after the war they numbered 12 with under 9,000 students. Today there are 116,518 boys and girls-most of them non-Catholics-enrolled in 191 Catholic primary, secondary and technical schools. There are 73 churches and chapels in the diocese of Hong Kong. Chinese and non-Chinese engaged in parochial, educational and charitable work include 319 priests, 127 brothers and 688 sisters representing 34 religious congregations.