Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, pictured in a screenshot from a video, has been incarcerated in an Indian jail since his Oct. 9, 2020, arrest. Relatives and Jesuit friends are concerned that the 84-year-old priest, who suffers from Parkinson s disease, has contracted COVID-19. (CNS screenshot/YouTube)
Update May 19: The Maharashtra High Court has ordered that Stan Swamy, S.J., be taken back to JJ Hospital in central Mumbai, where he will undergo a full medical examination by a team of specialists. The state’s representative dismissed reports that Father Swamy’s health was rapidly declining or that he was experiencing symptoms related to Covid-19, arguing instead that Father Swamy was without complaints and “satisfied” with provisions made for his care in the prison. The judges at the bench expressed their dissatisfaction with the latest medical report and ordered that a comprehensive report, this time by doctors at the state hospital, be presented to the court by Friday, May 21,
Jesuit Father Stephen Chow, provincial of the Jesuits Chinese province, was named bishop of Hong Kong by Pope Francis May 17, 2021. The 61-year-old bishop-designate was born in Hong Kong. He is pictured in a 2016 photo. (CNS photo/Don Doll, S.J., courtesy General Curia of the Society of Jesus)
HONG KONG (CNS) Bishop-designate Stephen Chow Sau-yan told Hong Kong media people must start with a sense of faith and not assume Beijing is the enemy, and he hoped for dialogue to develop a better understanding.
“It is not that I am afraid to talk about controversial or political issues. Rather, we believe prudence is a virtue,” he said.
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.
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Vatican City, May 17, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Stephen Chow, S.J. as the next bishop of Hong Kong.
Chow, 61, has served as the provincial of the Jesuits’ Chinese Province since 2018. In that role, he led the Jesuit order in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China as the Vatican-China deal was first signed and during the crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy protest movement.
The Vatican announced Chow’s appointment on May 17, more than two years after the death of Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung left Hong Kong without a permanent bishop.
Fr. Stephen Chow Sau-yan, 周守仁, was born in Hong Kong on Aug. 7, 1959. He studied in the United States, earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota, before entering the Society of Jesus in Dublin, Ireland at the age of 25.