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Stephen Chow, S.J. (photo courtesy the Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus)
In a surprise move, after a search that lasted more than two years, Pope Francis has named the Jesuit Stephen Chow Sau-yan, 61, the provincial of the Chinese province of the Jesuits, as the ninth Catholic bishop of Hong Kong.
The Vatican announced this at noon today, Rome time, May 17. The diocese has been without a bishop since Jan. 3, 2019, when Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung died after leading the diocese for just 17 months. Cardinal John Tong Hon, 80, who had succeed Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kuin and was bishop of Hong Kong prior to Bishop Yeung, has served as apostolic administrator of the diocese since then, including a turbulent political period that saw Hong Kong lose the democratic freedoms it had enjoyed since the handover from Britain to the People’s Republic of China in 1997, as Beijing imposed a national security law in June 2020.