Hong Kong Catholics: (update).

It's been several months since Hong Kong, which was supposedly allowed to maintain its own laws and tradition, changed hands from Britain to China (see "Nothing to celebrate about Hong Kong", July/Aug. '97, page 8). Has anything happened in the political-religious sphere?

Not if you believe headlines such as that of a recent report, "Hong Kong ticks along much as usual" (Toronto Star, Aug. 23,'97). Yet in the very tail of this report one reads: "One thing Hong Kong has lost is land."

We learn that "After 99 years of dickering over the territory's borders, China has redrawn the map to absorb more than 250 square kilometres, about twice the size of Hong Kong island, into the mainland."

In other words, since July 1st, two-thirds of Hong Kong has now been gobbled up by China and now falls under the direct tyranny of the mainland regime, including its religious repression. Some crafty move!

On the island itself, demonstrations or protests in any form are now forbidden when they "threaten peace," or promote "independence for Taiwan and Tibet," or threaten "national security."

The standard argument about religion in mainland China was recently repeated in Beijing by various Communist leaders, saying that "not one person has been arrested or jailed for their religious beliefs, just persons who use religion to hide criminal and other activities." One especially notes the reference to "other" activities; this of course, can mean anything at all.

As for the Holy Father, Hong Kong is called to act as a Christian "lamp" for all of China, he wrote in a letter to Cardinal John Wu Cheng-Chung just before the hand-over to China on July 1. And with the grace of God it may just do that.