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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father has appointed His Eminence Cardinal John Tong Hon, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, as his special envoy to preside at the concluding celebration of the Fifth Eucharistic Congress of Taiwan, scheduled to take place at the Exhibition Center of the diocese of Kaohsiung on 5 October 2024.
John Tong Hon was born on July 31, 1939 in Hong Kong to non-Catholic parents. He is the eldest of three children (a sister and a brother currently living in Canada). At the age of two, the Japanese invasion forced his family to move to Macao. His parents then entrusted him to his paternal grandmother, who lived in a village in the province of Guangdong, to protect him from the dangers of war. At the end of the war, the family was reunited in Canton and he began primary school. In the meantime, his mother was baptized first, soon followed by all the other members of the family. When his father fell ill with tuberculosis, she was the one who supported everyone with her work as a schoolteacher. At the age of twelve, John Tong entered St. Joseph Seminary in Macau. After high school, he entered the Holy Spirit Seminary in Hong Kong in 1957 to study philosophy and theology. In 1964, he was sent to Rome, where the Second Vatican Council was still in progress. In Rome he earned a licentiate and doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University. He was ordained a priest by Pope Montini on January 6, 1966, along with the members of his course of studies.
Upon his return to Hong Kong, he went to live at the seminary, where he continued to reside after his episcopal appointment. In 1980, Tong was appointed head of the new Holy Spirit Study Centre, the renowned documentation centre on the life of the Church in China, which also publishes the magazine Tripod. In 1992, he became Vicar General of the Cardinal Archbishop of Hong Kong John Baptist Wu. In 1996, John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Hong Kong, one year before the former British colony returned to Chinese jurisdiction. Thanks to his spirit of mediation, Tong also participated in the transition negotiations of the time. In January 2008, he became first Coadjutor Bishop and then (April 15, 2009) Bishop of his diocese of origin. A former basketball player, he participated in August 2008 in the opening of the Olympic Games at the Beijing stadium as an official guest.
During the consistory of February 18, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI created him Cardinal with the title of Regina Apostolorum.
He was President Delegate at the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme: "The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith" (October 2012).
On 1 August 2017, Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Hong Kong. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 3/8/2024)
