Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ has appointed Fr Stephen Tong SJ as the next provincial of the Chinese Province, succeeding Fr Stephen Chow SJ, who has been appointed by Pope Francis as bishop of Hong Kong.
In his letter to the Jesuits and mission partners of the province, Fr Chow extended his gratitude to Fr Tong “for his generous availability for this arduous and challenging mission” and asked for “ardent support and closest cooperation with Fr Tong, which is “crucial for the fruitfulness of God’s Mission through our province, united among the four regions,” namely, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and mainland China.
Born on 19 August 1963 in Macau as the youngest son of five siblings, Fr Tong was raised in a non-Catholic family. He was baptised a Catholic shortly before he left Macau to study civil engineering in Taiwan in 1981. After his eldest sister entered religious life, he began to consider the same vocation for himself, and decided to join the Society of Jesus in 1990. He entered the novitiate in Singapore and studied Philosophy in Manila. He returned to Macau for his Regency, teaching at Colégio Estrela do Mar for two years before studying theology at the Holy Spirit Seminary College in 1996. He was ordained a deacon in 1999, and spent two years in Boston for an STL on dogma and Ignatian spirituality at the Weston School of Theology. In that interval, he was ordained a priest on 24 June 2000 in Macau.
His first priestly mission was in Manila in 2001 as Pre-Novitiate Director and Socius to the Novice Master. From then on, Fr Tong’s ministry has dealt mainly with formation and Ignatian Spirituality. He is currently the Director of Xavier House – Ignatian Spirituality Centre in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong, a post he has held since 2004, after his Tertianship. Fr Tong is also the Ignatian Spirituality Network (ISN) Coordinator of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP). He gives retreats and spiritual formation in both Hong Kong and mainland China. He has served as province consultor since 2010, and Superior of the Jesuits in Hong Kong since 2012.
JCAP President Fr Tony Moreno SJ commended to the prayers of everyone Fr Tong and Bishop-elect of Hong Kong, Fr Chow, for their respective missions. He thanked Fr Tong “for his leadership at ISN and for his availability to serve the Chinese Province and JCAP”. He also thanked Fr Chow “for four years of committed service to the conference”.
Fr Tong will assume his new mission as provincial on 1 November.