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RELIGION AND CUSTOM

HKCC also encourages local Christians to play an active part in the development of Hong Kong society. It seeks to serve the wider community through its auxiliary agencies such as the Hong Kong Christian Service, Christian Industrial Committee, United Christian Hospital, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital and Alice Ho Min Yee Nethersole Hospital and the Christian Family Service Centre. The council runs weekly 'Alternative Tours', which give visitors and residents an opportunity to see how the church serves the community.

In recent years, there has been the trend of more young people becoming Christian or identifying themselves as Christians. This is most obvious in the university campuses.

The Roman Catholic Community

The Roman Catholic Church has been present since Hong Kong's earliest days. The church was established as a mission prefecture in 1841 and as an apostolic vicariate in 1874. It became a diocese in 1946.

In 1969, Francis Chen-peng Hsu was installed as the first Chinese bishop of the Hong Kong diocese, and he was succeeded in 1973 by Peter Wang-kei Lei. The present bishop, John Baptist Cheng-chung Wu, was consecrated in 1975, and was made Cardinal in 1988. In December 1996, two bishops were ordained to assist the Cardinal- Joseph Ze-kiun Zen as the Coadjutor Bishop and John Hong Tong as the Auxiliary Bishop.

About 242 500 people, or nearly 4 per cent of the population, are Catholics. They are served by 326 priests, 75 brothers, and 559 sisters. There are 60 parishes and 33 centres for Mass. Most services and other religious activities are conducted in Chinese, with a few churches providing services in English.

The diocese has established its own administrative structure while maintaining traditional links with the Pope and other Catholic communities around the world. It uses the same scriptures and has similar ecclesial communions as in the universal church throughout the world, with which it maintains close fellowship. The assistant secretary-general of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conference has his office in Hong Kong.

Along with its apostolic work, the diocese is concerned with the well-being of all the people of Hong Kong. The 329 Catholic schools and kindergartens have about 280 150 pupils. The Catholic Board of Education assists in this area. Medical and social services include six hospitals, 17 clinics, 14 social centres, 10 hostels, 24 homes for the aged, 15 homes for the handicapped and many self-help clubs and associations. Caritas is the official social welfare arm of the church in Hong Kong. Services are open to all people indeed, 95 per cent of those who have benefited from the wide range of services provided by the diocese are not Catholics.

The diocese publishes two weekly newspapers, Kung Kao Po and The Sunday Examiner. The Diocesan Audio-Visual Centre produces tapes and films for use in schools and parishes and the Hong Kong Catholic Social Communications Office acts as an overall information and public relations channel for the diocese.

The Muslim Community

Hong Kong has about 80 000 Muslims. More than half are Chinese, with the rest being either locally-born non-Chinese or believers from Pakistan, India, Malaysia,

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