Dominic Chan Chi-ming (; born 1952) is the former

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...

of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong (; la, Dioecesis Sciiamchiamensis) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church. The diocese takes its name from the see city, the metropolitan area where the bishop resides. The Roman Catholic Diocese o ...

. He also serves as parish priest of the city's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Early life

Chan was born in Yim Tin Tsai,

Sai Kung District Sai Kung District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. The district comprises the southern half of the Sai Kung Peninsula, the Clear Water Bay Peninsula in the New Territories and a strip of lan ...

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

in 1952. Chan is of A Hakka ancestry. He was ordained

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

by Cardinal

John Baptist Wu John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung ( zh, t=胡振中, cy=Wu Cheng-chung; 26 March 1925 – 23 September 2002) was the fifth List of Roman Catholic bishops of Hong Kong, Roman Catholic bishop of Hong Kong and the first Cardinal (Catholic Church), ...

in 1979. Chan later led funds to restore a chapel on Yim Tin Tsai Island in compliance with a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

restoration project in 2016.

Vicar General

Chan served as

of the Diocese of Hong Kong from December 1992 until January 2019. He was chosen together with

John Tong Hon John Tong Hon (born 31 July 1939) is a Chinese prelate of the Catholic Church. A cardinal since 2012, he was auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong from 1996 to 2008, then coadjutor bishop of the diocese for a year, and Bishop of Hong Kong from 2009 ...

, and served with him until the latter's appointment as

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...

of Hong Kong in 2008. Chan has also served as vicar general alongside

Michael Yeung Michael Yeung Ming-cheung (; 1 December 1945 – 3 January 2019) was the eighth Roman Catholic bishop of Hong Kong. He was consecrated on 30 August 2014. Early life Yeung Ming-cheung was born in Shanghai in 1945. He completed his primary an ...

(from 2009 until 2016, when Yeung was appointed coadjutor bishop),

Pierre Lam Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

(2009–2014),

Joseph Ha Joseph Ha Chi-shing, Order of Friars Minor, O.F.M. (Chinese language, Chinese: 夏志誠, born 4 March 1959), is a Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic bishop and currently the auxiliary bishop of Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Biog ...

(2014–2019),

Peter Choy Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, and

Benedict Lam Benedict may refer to: People Names *Benedict (given name), including a list of people with the given name *Benedict (surname), including a list of people with the surname Religious figures *Pope Benedict I (died 579), head of the Catholic Chur ...

(both 2017–2019). The office of vicar general became vacant upon the death of Michael Yeung on 3 January 2019. In this office, Chan serves as Chairperson of the Diocesan Pastoral Commission for Marriage and the Family, the Diocesan Commission for Laity Formation, the Committee for Promoting the Cardinal's Pastoral Exhortation, the Diocesan Board of Catholic Cemeteries and the Diocesan Committee for the Permanent Diaconate. He is also an Ex-officio Member of the Council of Priests, the Diocesan Personnel Commission, the Hong Kong Catholic Board of Education, the Hong Kong Catholic Education Development Committee, the Central Management Committee for Diocesan Schools and the Diocesan Building and Development Commission. While Chan has been the Vicar General, Hong Kong has recruited more married men to become deacons (Hong Kong was the first Catholic diocese in Asia to ordain married men as deacons). Chan visited former Hong Kong leader

Donald Tsang Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen (; born 7 October 1944) is a former Hong Kong civil servant who served as the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2012. Tsang joined the colonial civil service as an Executive Officer in 1967, occupyi ...

while Tsang's trials were ongoing. In 2017, Chan presided over the ceremonies in which the Our Lady of Fatima Statue passed through the territory on its first stop en route to Portugal to celebrate the centennial of the Marian apparition.

Parish priest

Chan has been the Parish Priest of the Hong Kong Catholic Cathedral of the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

since 2000.

View on the elevation of Bishop Zen

On 13 February 2006, Chan expressed his view on the then possibility of the elevation of

Joseph Zen Joseph Zen Ze-kiun SDB (, born 13 January 1932) is a cardinal of the Catholic Church from Hong Kong, who served as the sixth Bishop of Hong Kong. He was appointed cardinal in 2006, and has been outspoken on issues regarding human rights, ...

, the Bishop of Hong Kong, to

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

. He said although he was still waiting for a formal announcement, he expected Zen to be elevated to cardinal in the next

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church *Consistory ...

. He believed that his elevation will show how important the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

values the church in China, and that it would be an honour to have a cardinal once again to head the diocese. Zen eventually became a Cardinal.

References

External links