Bishop Stephen Chow and several of his senior priests at the invitation of Bishop of Beijing, Joseph Li Shan are due to arrive in the Chinese capital on Monday 24th April.

The deal struck in 2018 was a bid to ease a longstanding divide among mainland China’s roughly 12 million Catholics between an underground Church that swears loyalty to the Vatican and the state-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association.

For the first time since the 1950s, both sides recognised the pope as the supreme leader of the Catholic Church.

In a statement to Reuters ahead of his five-day trip, Chow – who was appointed by the pope – said he hoped to “promote exchanges and interactions” between the mainland and the broader Church, in particular with Asia.

When asked if he was carrying any message for his hosts from the Vatican, Chow, through a spokesperson, said: “This is an exchange of visits between dioceses. Mainland China has established liaison with the Vatican on state affairs.”

Freedom of religious belief and worship is detailed in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, which has governed the city’s status as a Special Administrative Region of China since Britain handed it over in 1997.

Some Hong Kong priests and Catholics fear Chinese authorities are gradually tightening control over the church in the city of just over 7 million people, about 400,000 of whom are Catholic, in part through the growth of exchanges between senior clerics.

Chow did not rule out raising those concerns with his mainland counterparts.

“It is possible to touch on different religious or other concerns. Up to now, there is no restriction on religious freedom in Hong Kong per se,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Hong Kong government’s home affairs bureau said religious freedom was protected under the Basic Law and the authorities refrained from interfering with religious bodies if their activities were lawful.

“Hong Kong is an open and inclusive city, characterised by a diversity of religious beliefs,” the spokesperson said.

Pope Francis named Chow as bishop of Hong Kong in May 2021 – a long-delayed appointment amid growing Western concern over human rights and freedoms in the Asian financial hub.

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