“In Hong Kong, we have our wounds that we need to heal,” Cardinal Stephen Chow, S.J., the bishop of Hong Kong, told America’s Vatican correspondent in this exclusive interview given at the Jesuit Curia in Rome, on Oct. 28, the day after the Synod on Synodality concluded.
He believes that by working together to build a synodal church, inspired by the synod process worldwide and the synod’s final document, Catholics can make an important contribution to healing wounds in Hong Kong and helping to overcome polarization in a divided world.
Gerard O’Connell: This was your first synod, and you participated in both sessions (October 2023 and 2024). What’s your takeaway? What do you feel now that it’s over?
I have some mixed feelings because I [got to] know the people already, especially those from Asia, and we’ve been working and laughing and discussing and sharing, and now we are finished. They’re gone, and also the new friends I made during the assemblies. Such is life! We come together, which is a blessing, and then you depart for greater things, hopefully. But we make friends, and like we said to the Asian delegates, we have to support each other when we go back to our own dioceses, our own communities.
How to start now? We have already started back in 2021, but now the challenge is: How do you make synodality a reality, a growing reality? That’s the challenge. Honestly, we—at least I and some others—thought, “We’ll wait for the apostolic exhortation, that will give us time to do some more groundwork.” But Pope Francis said there will be no apostolic exhortation.
This decision might be a challenge for some people, given the weight of the magisterium on this document. This final document certainly carries weight because it has involved so many people since 2021; we have interviewed people and have had “conversations in the spirit.” It is the fruit of many people and many expectations. Then the delegates came here, and we spent time together, we listened, we talked, we shared, we discerned. How would that not carry weight? It’s the Holy Spirit who is present at the assemblies. The pope has been with us, especially during this assembly. He certainly has followed it very closely, and he’s happy enough to ask us to publish the final document as it is. He has signed it, which means he has approved it.
It’s a very rich document. Would it be correct to say it is a road map for the church in the 21st century?
I would say so. We need to read it carefully because it certainly covers many areas. It is not a manual, definitely not, but it’s a good road map, and on some issues, it gave steps, some concrete suggestions, on what to do to be a synodal church.
Which of these steps struck you the most?
Discernment. They really put [an emphasis on] discernment in a good way because for many people discernment can be a kind of wishy-washy thing. But it’s not wishy-washy. So there are steps to take, and not from one tradition or one method; but for whatever way you want to do discernment, the final document gives the components for discernment.
So discernment is one thing that stood out for you. Are there other aspects of the document that also stand out?
Definitely. For example, accountability, that is important. Also the involvement of the lay people is very important. I know there’s much on women, and some part also on the diaconate for women. It is still open for study and discernment. Someone said this document pleases no one, but I think at the same time it makes a lot of people feel more at peace. Especially those who were nervous about it. I don’t think it’s fair to say it pleases no one.
Every paragraph was approved by a majority vote at the end.
Yes, it may not be with the same magnitude that people expect. For example, the paragraph on the roles and contributions of women and women’s diaconate received more “no” [votes] in the final document, but the women’s diaconate is not a closed question. We still need to continue to discern here. I know people will say, how much longer do you need to discern? I will leave this to the working group; they have to come up with recommendations to the Holy Father.
The involvement of women is very big in the final document.
Yes, this final document certainly has more coverage on women, and I’m happy to see that. And also on young people. You know we fought a bit to include Catholic education in this document; it wasn’t in the working document so we asked for it to be included. I know that Catholic education is very important because through it we affect a lot of lives and we’re forming young people. We accompany them.
What does the synod have to say for Hong Kong and for the Chinese world?
Listening and trust: Listening with empathy and trust still are important, and the most fundamental thing. We can talk about whatever issues—for example, [the role of] women—but if you don’t even have the willingness, the capacity to listen, to listen in a deep way, to listen in a self-emptying and emphatic way, if you don’t have that inner freedom, we cannot walk with each other. We need to listen to each other with empathy and have trust, and then we can have dialogue. Otherwise, it’s just parallel monologues. Most of the time, it’s like that, right? We need to meet each other through listening, through empathy, through trust that we can meet each other and then we can discern.
This is what you think is very important coming from the synod for Hong Kong and China?
Oh yes. In Hong Kong, we have our own wounds we need to heal. As for China[’s relationship] with the Vatican, with Rome, they also need to learn to do that more. But I know it’s not easy, especially for China, that is not part of the tradition, and [we have to see] whether they want to take this model up, but it certainly speaks to both parties; both parties realize that they need to have more trust with each other.
Would you say this final document is a contribution to overcoming a polarized world, a divided world?
To the egoistic, the nationalistic, or whatever “we first” type of culture, this is a timely synod and document. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the footprint of the Holy Spirit in a world that is so divided, so egoistic, so self-centered. It’s the Holy Spirit moving the church, through the Holy Father first, and then his team. Now, we are called to give witness to this, to give counter witness through this synodal path. That, I believe, is the only way out for the divided world.
At the first session in October 2023, synod participants spoke about convergences and divergences, and they seemed to be finding a way forward without polarization. So there was a much more relaxed atmosphere in this second assembly; participants seemed to have found a way to overcome the internal polarization in the church, or at least were moving in that way.
I think this was a result of the intelligence of the Holy Father and his team to assign the controversial issues to the study groups. These study groups have to deal with those issues, and they have space and time to do so. The Holy Father said, “Let’s give them time; they need to discern.” But what is more important for us is not to deal so much with the controversial issues, but to discover how to walk together as a church, both in relations, in methods and in structures.
Which of the conclusions of the synod do you find most relevant for Hong Kong? You mentioned healing the wounds.
I still say healing. By healing the wounds, we need to recover our confidence. I think we’re losing self-confidence, and so we need to pick up that spirit and energy, that confidence, not arrogance. In the past, we had arrogance and that’s not good for Hong Kong. But we’ve got to have more self-confidence, and what will contribute to self-confidence is the self-image. The self-image is recovered when we can listen and talk together. Then we can heal each other, and we can start something new again, not necessarily going to the past glory of Hong Kong, but something new that we can say, “This is what we want to do, where we want to be, and who we, the new Hong Kong people, are.”
A striking aspect of the synod comes out in the final document: There’s a recognition and respect for the different cultures, for different ways of doing things, and moving at different speeds.
I’m glad you mentioned that because we have got to respect each other. We move at different speeds because there are different contexts, different resistances.
Someone said to me a few months ago [that] this is a very Pope Francis way of administration. It is not very directive. So [he says]: “Do whatever works in your context, but of course, within our parameters. So, we settle the parameters, but how you are going to do it, and how to celebrate it, you decide in your context.”
Last question. Do you think that in what you’ve been through at the synod you have heard the Spirit talking to the church?
Yes! The world is in such a state that this synod was timely. I see this as the intervention of the Holy Spirit through the church, and I hope the church can really live that out, to collaborate with the Holy Spirit, to collaborate with God, to heal our world.
