Let the Holy Spirit surprise you

Dec 11, 2021

Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan was ordained the ninth bishop of Hong Kong on December 4. Prior to his episcopal ordination, he was interviewed by the diocesan newspapers – the Sunday Examiner and the Kung Kao Po. The interview is featured here.

When Pope Francis, a Jesuit, was elected Pope in 2013, the Church witnessed a new vitality and hope. What can we expect from Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan, also a Jesuit? The answer was quick: “I am not Francis!” Bishop Chow acknowledged the common factor that he shares with the Pope: “As Jesuits, one of our General Chapters gives great importance to spiritual conversation and discernment in communion — communion not just among the Jesuits, but we have to discern with non-Jesuits in mission and our lay partners in mission. I think that is an important way for a bishop.

“I don’t believe in running the diocese like a corporation with big strategic plans. We have to listen to different sectors, especially laypeople. They have a voice which needs to be heard. And this is what the Pope means by synodality. Francis is very much a Jesuit!”

Childhood
Bishop Chow was baptised on the 10th day after his birth, at the parish of the Holy Souls of Purgatory, which is now known as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in Wan Chai. He attended Rosary Hill kindergarten and primary school before joining Wah Yan College. He showed great interest in academics and co-curricular activities and was keen on learning judo until, one day, he developed a severe, life-threatening form of epilepsy.

Repeated hospitalisation, prolonged treatment and medication traumatised the young man. He thought he might die. His father brought him to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to see a priest. Contrary to his fears that the priest would scold him for not going to church regularly, he found compassion in Fr Antony Tsang Hing-lam, and that infused faith in his young mind.

“When the pendulum swings, it swings to the extremes!” Bishop Chow laughed. He began to frequent church and the sacraments, even to the point of the priest telling him not to come back for Confession on the same day!

His health condition affected his academic grades and hampered his social life. However, he became involved in different Catholic groups on campus as well as in the parish, serving as an altar boy, with the Christian Life Community and the Apostleship of Prayer, as well as with the Red Cross.

“You name it, I was there … except that I did not go back to judo, because my parents would not allow me to,” he said, adding that he gradually became acquainted with the Jesuit priests of the campus and began to think, “Becoming a Jesuit is not a bad idea!”

His results were not good enough to gain admission into either of the two available universities in Hong Kong. Still, his father could afford to send him to the University of Minnesota in the United States of America.

Vocational journey
Bishop Chow felt that one important development during the years he spent in the university was his attraction to the altar and the sanctuary in the church. Although the parishioners at this US parish were not so welcoming of foreigners, “I felt attracted to the altar every time I went to the church and had a feeling deep within me that this was the place I should be,” Bishop Chow recalled, adding, “I could not lie to myself. That was an important part of my vocation story, like my heart telling me where I should go.”

He studied psychology and philosophy for his undergraduate degree at the university because, deep in his heart, he believed that these streams would be helpful in the future if he should join the seminary. He even approached a Jesuit community of the Wisconsin Province, enquiring about the procedures for joining. However, they asked him to apply to the Jesuit Community in Hong Kong because he expressed his desire to work there. Although he visited the Jesuit community in Hong Kong, he was still uncertain. Back in the US to complete his studies in 1983, Bishop Chow decided to apply to the Jesuits and wrote to the superior in Hong Kong. He was readily accepted.

Informing his parents and family of his decision was the next hurdle. “I wrote the longest letter I have ever written in my life to my parents and siblings,” he said. For him, it was important to have the permission and blessings of his parents to join the seminary. Two weeks later, when he realised that his father was going to talk to him over the phone, he rehearsed well and psychologically prepared himself for the conversation with the help of a friend and his wife.

Bishop Chow recalled the conversation as if it happened just yesterday. “How is the weather there?” was his father’s first question. “Do you know why I called?” to which he replied in the negative. “You are old enough to make your own decisions. Rationally, I can accept that [you will enter the seminary], although emotionally, I do not like your decision at all,” said his father on the other end of the phone. “I wanted to kneel and thank God because my father’s approval was important to me.

Concern for young people
His responsibility for schools for over a decade and the resultant association with young people generated in him a special interest in their concerns. “Wagging your finger at young people is not good. Young people want to be listened to, they want us to listen to them,” the bishop said. To be with young people, he identified two basic qualities: empathy and passive listening. Without empathy, you don’t understand a person. Empathy doesn’t mean that you have to agree with them. “If you are empathetic, you will be a little more sympathetic,” he said.

In the Society of Jesus
J oining the Jesuits in Hong Kong, he was sent to Ireland for his formation, where he spent four years in Dublin. He completed the novitiate and two years of licentiate in Philosophy with a thesis on Karl Marx. It was the time when Liberation Theology was in vogue. In 1988 he returned to Hong Kong to pursue his Theology formation at the Holy Spirit Seminary.

After completing his studies, he was ordained a deacon by John Baptist Cardinal Wu in 1993. His superiors permitted him to pursue his Masters’ degree in Organisational Development at Loyola University in Chicago before being ordained a priest by Cardinal Wu in 1995. Looking back on those years in formation, Bishop Chow acknowledges the amazing ways God had been preparing him to work for Him.

He was appointed as chaplain and teacher at Wah Yan College. Although he had the opportunity to pursue his PhD, he chose to remain with his students and support them during the uncertainties of 1997. Two years later, he returned to the US to pursue his doctoral studies in Human Development and Psychology at Harvard University.

The experience at the universities in the US gave him the idea for an ambitious project - a Liberal Arts college in Hong Kong. This discipline is not provided in the universities in Hong Kong. “Our education system does not foster independent, critical thinking.” Although the project had to be scrapped, it gave him visibility among his confrères in the Chinese Province of the Jesuits, which led to his subsequent election as the provincial superior.

“During my 14 years as a school supervisor, I faced many storms. But such controversies only made me stronger and made my skin thicker,” the bishop noted, adding that these experiences gave him the conviction that “evil is self-destructive in the long run. What is important is that we don’t join evil, we beat it.”

Recalling his mission in the two Wah Yan Colleges he said, “Integrity is the core value that makes the Church different in the world. People come to us not because we are shrewd as financiers or professionals, but because they still have hope that there is integrity in the Church. I am not saying that the Church is without any mistakes, but many good laypeople and pastors try their best to live up to what they believe in — the Gospel. That is what I have striven for as school supervisor: to educate our young men with values and character.”

Bishop Chow mused over the amazing ways through which God has been guiding him over the years, noting: “If I had not been a supervisor in the two schools, and if not for the Liberal Arts college project, I would not have become a provincial. And if I had not become a provincial, the Vatican might not have noticed me.”

His vegetarian lifestyle bears witness to his compassion towards people and nature. A cancer survivor himself, Bishop Chow has maintained a strict vegetarian diet since 2005. While studying in Ireland, there was a lot of meat to eat. “Vegetables served on the table were regarded as “certified dead on arrival,” he laughed. On his return to Hong Kong in 1989, he stopped eating meat. Since 2005, even fish has been off his menu! “You look at a fish and the fish looks at you. You feel compassion, how could you eat it?” he asks.

Concern for young people
His responsibility for schools for over a decade and the resultant association with young people generated in him a special interest in their concerns. “Wagging your finger at young people is not good. Young people want to be listened to, they want us to listen to them,” the bishop said. To be with young people, he identified two basic qualities: empathy and passive listening. Without empathy, you don’t understand a person. Empathy doesn’t mean that you have to agree with them. “If you are empathetic, you will be a little more sympathetic,” he said.

Bishop Chow envisages a practical approach in ministry towards the youth. A highly philosophical or spiritual approach wouldn’t do any good but, at the same time, he does not agree with the idea of having ‘your feet on the ground.’ “If both your feet are firm on the ground, you cannot move; you will be static. To move forward, you need the balance of one foot on the ground and the other in the air,” he said.

“I want to encourage our young people to look far,” Bishop Chow said. He referred to the image of the giraffe in his Coat of Arms that looks beyond the shield. “The future of the world and the future of the Church belong to the young people. If you are not happy with the present situation, don’t get stuck there. Instead, think of how you would want the world, the Church and Hong Kong to be in 30 or 40 years’ time? Then identify people who think likewise and share the same views of life, and work together. Set a vision for the future and plan for it,” he said.

“For example, the pandemic: it will not be with us forever. But we have to learn to live for and with each other. Are we helping the poor to receive vaccination? If we fail to take care of the poor, the pandemic will keep recurring. We need to learn to do that. The pandemic has taught us to love and care for one another,” he said. — licasnews.com