“Education” and “culture” belong to two entirely different, but closely related fields. In discussing the future development of education and culture, this document will focus on “education”, but insert a “culture” component, which is related to education.
In 1989, in his Pastoral Exhortation, His Eminence Cardinal John-Baptist WU Cheng-Chung hailed Education, Pastoral Care and Social Service as the three pillars of the activities of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong. The Catholic Church’s contributions to education in the territory over the past l50 years are well known to all; the Church will continue to make further endeavours in this area.

The educative spirit of the Catholic Church originates from Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself was a great educator of mankind, who during three years of evangelization exerted an edifying and elevating influence on plain fishermen and greedy tax collectors. It may be seen from this that the essence of education lies in personal contact, persuasion, imparting and admonition. For all their importance, accessories such as relevant facilities, curricula and mechanisms are mere instruments. The educational ideal of the Catholic Church is based on the “holistic concept” in the Catholic philosophy of life, which aims at developing the total personality of man, not only by guiding man’s bodily life in keeping with the changes of society, times and culture, but also by enlightening man’s spiritual life. “Thus the Catholic school, taking into consideration as it should the conditions of an age of progress, prepares its pupils to contribute effectively to the welfare of the world of men and to work for the extension of the kingdom of God, so that by living an exemplary and apostolic life they may be, as it were, a saving leaven in the community.” (1)

According to the data available in the Hong Kong Catholic Church Directory for the Year 2000, Hong Kong has altogether 323 Catholic schools, of which 132 are run by the Diocese (including the Holy Seminary College of Theology and Philosophy and the Biblical Institute), 49 by Caritas, 138 by different religious congregations, and 4 operated privately by lay Catholics, with a total enrolment of 289,391 students, representing 30% of the total student population in Hong Kong. Among the students in Catholic schools, 6.56% are Catholics, and of the 11,645 teachers 27.26% are Catholics. As the biggest School Sponsoring Body in Hong Kong, the Catholic Diocese has a responsibility to play a prophetic role and see that diocesan schools work hand in hand with Religious and Caritas schools as well as schools operated by lay Catholic schools for the betterment of society and the advent of the kingdom of heaven.

In what follows, we shall first make a brief analysis of the current situations as well as the Catholic educational undertakings in Hong Kong. This will be followed by a description of our great aspiration to improve society through educational work, including a vision about the kind of community we wish to foster and the mission we set for ourselves in bringing up youth and students. Finally, in order to carry out our educational mission and turn our vision into reality, we shall make concrete recommendations on how to bring about reforms and innovations.