Catholic News Service photo Pope Francis named three new auxiliary bishops for Hong Kong: Bishops-designate Joseph Ha Chi-shing, Michael Yeung Ming-cheung and Stephen Lee Bun Sang. The diocese has more than 540,000 Catholics.
Catholic News Service photo
Pope Francis named three new auxiliary bishops for Hong Kong: Bishops-designate Joseph Ha Chi-shing, Michael Yeung Ming-cheung and Stephen Lee Bun Sang. The diocese has more than 540,000 Catholics.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has named three auxiliary bishops for the Diocese of Hong Kong. They are the diocesan vicar general, the head of Opus Dei for East Asia and the former regional superior of the Franciscan friars.

The appointment of the three auxiliaries for the diocese, which has an estimated 547,000 Catholics, was announced at the Vatican July 11. They will assist Cardinal John Tong Hon, who turns 75 July 31.

The three new auxiliaries are:

-- Bishop-designate Michael Yeung Ming-cheung, 67, who was born in Shanghai and worked for an import-export company before entering the seminary and being ordained to the priesthood in 1978. After a two-year assignment as a pastor, he was sent to Syracuse University in the United States to earn his master's in social communications. He returned to Hong Kong as diocesan communications director.

Sent back to the United States in 1989, he earned a master's in educational philosophy at Harvard University. Returning to Hong Kong, he was named diocesan director of education. For 10 years he also was  director of the diocesan Caritas organization and is a member of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which promotes and coordinates Catholic charitable activity. He has been vicar general of the Diocese of Hong Kong since 2009.

-- Bishop-designate Stephen Lee Bun Sang, 57, a native of Hong Kong who studied in England, first at Oxford Polytechnic then at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. In the course of his studies, he came into contact with and joined Opus Dei. After working as an architect in London and Hong Kong, he entered the  seminary and was ordained a priest for Opus Dei in 1988.

After earning a doctorate in canon law from the University of Navarra, Spain, he did pastoral work in the Philippines, then returned to Hong Kong, where he worked in schools and at the diocesan tribunal. Since 2011, he was been the vicar of Opus Dei in East Asia.

-- Bishop-designate Joseph Ha Chi-shing, 55, also a native of Hong Kong,  where he attended Catholic schools. He entered the Franciscans and made his vows in 1988. After studying at the diocesan seminary, he was  ordained to the priesthood in 1990.

After ordination, he studied spiritual theology at Rome's Pontifical Antonianum University and religious education at Loyola University in Chicago. In addition to parish work in Hong Kong, he taught spirituality at the seminary and served as a consultant to the Vatican-established Commission for the Church in China. He has served as the Franciscan vocations promoter and novice master. From 2010 to 2013, he was the  Franciscan superior for Hong Kong. At the time of his appointment, he was on the pastoral staff of the Church of St. Bonaventure in Hong Kong.