Lucas Chan Ordination in Hong Kong |
| Lucas Chan will be ordained a priest for the Jesuit community on Saturday, 26 August 2006, in Hong Kong. As a scholastic, Lucas was assigned for several years to Cambodia where Charlie Dittmeier was his spiritual director. To be with Lucas at the end of his seminarian journey, Charlie is going to Hong Kong for the ordination. |
| Charlie flew to Hong Kong nonstop from Phnom Penh on Dragonair. The flight left Phnom Penh at 8:05 PM and arrived in Hong Kong at 11:40 PM. The departure time is nice because it means I have a full working day in Cambodia, but the arrival time is not so convenient! There used to be more flights to Hong Kong from Cambodia, but Royal Air Cambodge, the national carrier, collapsed just about the time the SARS epidemic was reducing passenger demand, and the number of flights has never climbed back to its previous total. Phnom Penh to Hong Kong is a 2.5 hour flight. |
 I received a really pleasant surprise when I walked into the arrival area of the Hong Kong airport a little after midnight and found some of my Hong Kong deaf friends there to greet me! Chan Tak Ming and his wife Lo Shuk Han and their daughter Wut Ka are on the left. Maria Wong Wing Yum is on the right! I most certainly appreciated their sacrificing their sleep to come out so late at night and just hope they weren't too tired at their jobs the next day! |
 I had only 4.5 hours of sleep, but this morning I got up, said hello to the Maryknoll people at the Stanley house, and then headed into Wanchai on Hong Kong Island. There I met Judy Wu Man Ha who now lives in Taiwan but is visiting her family here in Hong Kong. When I first came to Hong Kong to work with deaf people, Judy was a volunteer with the group, a most capable volunteer who also introduced me to Hong Kong culture and tutored me in Cantonese. Whatever I accomplished in Hong Kong during my thirteen years there depended largely on Judy's help. She was able to meet my parents when they visited Hong Kong and later she and her husband Henry Wong visited our family home in Pewee Valley, Kentucky. |
 Lucas Chan is the reason for this trip to Hong Kong. I had lunch with him today. As part of his training as a Jesuit, Lucas was assigned to Cambodia for almost two years and i was his spiritual director during that time. Since his departure from Cambodia in 2002, he has completed theology studies in the Philippines and the United States and is now being called to ordination as a priest. He is a Hong Kong native and will be ordained at the Hong Kong cathedral on 26 August 2006. |
Another talented and faithful volunteer for the Catholic deaf group in Hong Kong is Rebecca Siu Wai Yan whom I met later in the afternoon. She joined with the group after Judy Wu's departure but has been with the group for many years now. She also was a great help to me in my work in Hong Kong and also tutored me in Cantonese after Judy left. Now Rebecca is employed as a sign language interpreter and is working on a master's degree in linguistics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. |
| Today was supposed to be a day for hiking, something I've been looking forward to for a couple years, but I found out that some work needed to be sent to our partner, the Finnish Association of the Deaf in Helsinki, so I ended up spending the morning getting that ready. | ||
| Maryknoll has a program for sending volunteers into China to teach English to young people in local universities, and a group of volunteers has been undergoing orientation this week at the Stanley Maryknoll house. Today was their last day of preparation, and at noon there was a mass and siimple sending ceremony.
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| Today was another day of this trip that didn't happen as I had planned it. I thought I was going to have a lot of time—I even considered trying to get in my hike this morning—because my plane wasn't until 5:40 PM, but events took another turn. Last night one of the volunteers in the Catholic deaf group mentioned that she would like to talk so I met her for lunch and then headed to the airport from downtown. It worked out well.
The plane was delayed a little but it was not a big problem. The aircraft (the "equipment" in the airline jargon) was an Airbus 320 and I was delighted to see that it had an AC outlet under the arm rest between the seats! That is the first time I've seen that in economy class. With AC on board, I can use my laptop the whole trip no matter what the state of the laptop battery. When I got to Phnom Penh, my motordupe (motorcycle taxi) driver was waiting to take me home. We hadn't agreed on a spot to meet so I missed him at first and went out to check on the street, but then came back to the terminal and found him waiting there. |
Go to Charlie Dittmeier's home page
I arrived quite early for the ceremony at the Hong Kong Cathedral and found Lucas Chan (left) meeting with Fr. Thomas Law, the diocesan liturgy office directory, and other ministers of the ceremony to see where people would be moving during the ordination.
Three special guests at the ceremony were three members of the Hong Kong Lay Mission society. Lucia (left) worked for several years in Cambodia and read the first scripture reading. Wendy (center) is now working in Cambodia and read the second reading. Eunice is the director of the HK Lay Mission society and has visited Cambodia several times.
Catholic priests usually celebrate a "First Mass" the day after their ordination, the first time they are the main presider at the liturgy. Lucas Chan had his first mass at Wah Yan College in Kownloon in Hong Kong. Here he is setting up the chalice for the mass with the help of the sacristan.
Charlie had a meeting with the Hong Kong Lay Mission Society after lunch, and then at 6:00 PM met with members of the Catholic deaf community at a restaurant in Mongkok. It was a grand reunion and there were many photos taken with individuals and with families like that of Sun Wai Ha and Tong Kam Tong and their children who were toddlers when Charlie left Hong Kong.
Fernando Montano is a priest of the Guadalupe Mission Society from Mexico. He followed Charlie as the chaplain for the deaf people in Hong Kong but now he is being reassigned to work with a Chinese community near Sydney, Australia. His departure will be a great loss to the Catholic deaf community in Hong Kong.
