The organisation of what would become the Diocese of Hong Kong began immediately after the establishment of Hong Kong as a
British colony.
Prefecture apostolic In 1841 Pope
Gregory XVI created a
prefecture apostolic comprising "Hong Kong with the surrounding six
leagues" independent from the
Diocese of Macau, but under the authority of the
bishop of Macau. Given the alarming rate of illness and death among British soldiers, the initial need for the establishment of the prefecture was the spiritual care of the British (Irish Catholic) soldiers stationed in the newly established colony.
Theodore Joset, a Swiss diocesan priest, and former
procurator of the mission at Macau, became the first prefect apostolic. In 1842, at the junction of
Pottinger Street and
Wellington Street, he laid the foundation stone for the first Catholic church in Hong Kong. It was dedicated to the
Immaculate Conception. Following Joset's death in 1842,
Anthony Feliciani became Prefect Apostolic of Hong Kong. The
St. Francis Xavier Chapel, for Catholic faithful in the
Wan Chai area was founded in 1845. Feliciani coordinated the mission work in China, and made substantial purchases of land in the
Starstreet Precinct, the earliest burial ground assigned by the Hong Kong Government for the non-Chinese population. The prefecture functioned much as a mission, but was intended from its inception to become a diocese. In the first ten years, the missionaries built churches, schools, a seminary, and institutions for the sick, elderly, and orphans. In response to the request of Prefect Apostolic
Théodore-Augustin Forcade, four
Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres arrived in Hong Kong on 12 September 1848. The Sisters first task was to establish a home for unwanted babies, mostly girls, abandoned. In 1858, the first missionaries, members of the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Milan (now
PIME) arrived; they were designated to take over the administration of the mission in time. They set about enlarging the cathedral, which, however, burnt down on 18 October 1859. It was rebuilt and blessed on 18 March 1860. By 1860, the physical territory had spread well beyond the initial six
leagues surrounding Hong Kong to include the
San On District (), the
Kowloon Peninsula,
Sai Kung Peninsula, and
Nam Tau.
Vicariate apostolic In 1874 the Hong Kong Prefecture was raised to a
vicariate apostolic and entrusted to the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Milan. The
Sisters of Canossa also established a presence in Hong Kong. Besides
Hong Kong Island, the vicariate included Kowloon (which became part of the colony in 1860),
Lantau Island (part of the colony since 1898) and the three continental districts of
San-on (), (), and
Hoi Fung (Haï-fung) (). Churches with resident priests were
the cathedral (
Glenealy),
St. Joseph's [
commons] (
Garden Road),
St. Francis (Wan Chai), Church of the Sacred Heart (
West Point), Church of St. Anthony (West Point). The
Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris had a procurator, a sanitorium (
Béthanie in
Pok Fu Lam) and a printing office (
Nazareth) at Hong Kong. In 1875 the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris established in Pok Fu Lam,
Béthanie a sanitorium to serve as a place for priests and missionaries from all over Asia to recover from tropical diseases before returning to their missions. With the 1894, bubonic plague outbreak, much of the population left Hong Kong.
John Douglas Lapraik sold the family estate at Pok Fu Lam, Douglas Castle, to the French Mission. The building soon turned into a monastery and was renamed, Nazareth. The building went through a major renovation which included a printing house that operated one of the busiest bible printing and translation facilities of the early 20th century in Asia. More missionaries arrived from many orders throughout the 1920s and 1930s, building more churches, schools, and hospitals. In 1935, the Dominicans established
St. Albert's Priory (
aka. St. Albert the Great's Priory), a House of Studies for the whole Far East, at the foot of
Mount Nicholson, a place that came to be known as Rosary Hill. The priory closed and the students moved to the Philippines in 1959, and the premises have since been occupied by Rosaryhill School, with part of the site becoming . During World War II, the
Japanese occupation stopped almost all activities. Missionaries evacuated, and were variously interned, released, and expelled. After the war, reconstruction began immediately.
Diocese On 11 April 1946
Pope Pius XII established the episcopal hierarchy in China, raising all the
apostolic vicariates to dioceses, Hong Kong among them. Since then, the Hong Kong Diocese is directly responsible to the pope.
Enrico Valtorta became the first bishop of Hong Kong. In 1949 refugees fleeing the Chinese communist regime began to pour into Hong Kong, including many Catholics and clergymen from all over China; diocesan activities were effectively restricted to the boundaries of the Colony. In 1952, the diocese opened seven new chapels for refugees. In 1969 Bishop
Francis Hsu became, after the resignation of
Lorenzo Bianchi, the first ethnically Chinese bishop of Hong Kong. On 29 May 1988
John Baptist Wu, the fifth bishop, was named a member of the
College of Cardinals by
Pope John Paul II. He was the first
cardinal from the Hong Kong diocese. On 18 August 1991, an Open Forum on "Elections 1991", jointly organised by the Council of Priests, the Justice and Peace Commission, the Central Council of Catholic Laity and the Catholic Institute for Religion and Society, was held in the nine constituencies of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories in order to encourage the faithful to take an active part in the direct elections to the Legislative Council on 15 September. Church organisations also made a similar appeal to the faithful and ordinary citizens through publications, questionnaires and advertisements in newspapers. On 15 April 1993 the diocese was re-divided into nine
deaneries. The Council of Priests was reorganised with all the deans included as ex officio members. After the death of Cardinal Wu on 23 September 2002, his
coadjutor Joseph Zen Ze-kiun became the 6th bishop of Hong Kong. On 8 July 2004 the
Legislative Council passed the . Under the amended ordinance, which would be effective on 1 January 2005, every aided school would be required before 2010 to form an incorporated management committee (IMC) whose members should include elected representatives of teachers, parents of students and alumni, as well as other independent persons, with a view to promoting a school-based management. It was the concern of the Church that, as a sponsoring body, she would no longer be empowered in the future to supervise the schools under her sponsorship, nor be able to achieve her goals and objectives in Catholic education. On 5 June 2005, Zen announced that, if the Legislative Council passed the donation to support schools to create incorporated management committees on 8 July 2005, he would appeal against the decision to the court. After the Government decided to give up some of its main objectives and the diocese subsequently decided to support the motion. On 22 February 2006,
Pope Benedict XVI announced that Bishop
Joseph Zen would be raised to the College of Cardinals. He was made a cardinal at a consistory held on 24 March. Zen was an outspoken supporter of democracy and a critic of the
People's Republic of China. His views on government policies were often at odds with those of Hong Kong's former
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who is also a Catholic. On 15 April 2009.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed coadjutor Bishop John Tong Hon as the 7th bishop of the Diocese of Hong Kong after Zen's resignation. Tong was named a member of the College of Cardinals on 19 February 2012. On 1 August 2017,
Pope Francis accepted Tong's resignation, which allowed coadjutor Bishop Michael Yeung Ming Cheung to succeed him as the 8th bishop of the Diocese of Hong Kong. Due to Yeung's unexpected death on 3 January 2019, the
de facto practice after the
handover of having a coadjutor bishop succeed an outgoing bishop could not be followed. His death was shortly followed by the
Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement, which sharply divided the people of Hong Kong, including Catholics. These circumstances made it difficult to appoint a bishop that could pastorally navigate the social climate of the time, and it was not until May 2021 that Pope Francis was finally able to appoint Jesuit priest Stephen Chow as the 9th bishop of Hong Kong. ==Politics==