Hong Kong's top Catholic leader acknowledged for the first time yesterday that sex scandals have rocked the universal church, including the local diocese, over the past year.
Bishop John Tong Hon told parishioners yesterday that 'during the past year, while the Universal Church was celebrating the Year of the Priest, and our diocese was celebrating the Year of the Priestly Vocations, we were shamed by sex scandals concerning a few members of clergy in the wider church, and even in our own diocese.
'We kept asking, 'Why did such events happen at this particular time?'.' Bishop Tong said during the homily, which was given in Cantonese. 'My response is, 'It happened out of human weakness'.'
The bishop, speaking at a celebration of World Mission Sunday held at Hong Kong Stadium, which marked the sharing of the mission by priests and the laity, did not elaborate on the nature of the scandals or the parties involved. Diverging from the Chinese text, the English translation of the speech provided by the church did not mention the sex scandal by name, referring to the incidents as 'scandalous news'.
The Hong Kong Catholic diocese is the largest Chinese diocese in the world, with more than 350,000 Chinese Catholics in Hong Kong and more than 120,000 Catholics of other nationalities.
In a September bulletin announcing World Mission Sunday, Diocesan Vicar Dominic Chang said: 'We also want to encourage priests, as a follow up to the message of the Year for Priests, centred on the fidelity of priests.'
