Born: 28 September 1917,
Entered: 30 May 1937, Novaliches, Rizal, Philippines - Marylandiae-Neo Eboracensis for Hiberniae Province (MARNEB for HIB)
Left Society of Jesus: 20 October 1938
Irish Province News 12th Year No 4 1937
China :
From Hong Kong Letters :
Wah-Yan :
The College opened on April 12th after the Easter and Tsing Ming holidays. We came fourth at the Inter School Sports. Two of our best runners had sprains and strains, and were unable to run.
There are 38 under instruction in our Catechism classes, but, as regards baptism, much parental opposition has to be overcome, as the following figures show. Parents definitely opposed, 17; Parents say “too young” 7; , not yet ready for baptism, 10; will be baptized shortly, 3.
Last January, H. E.. The Governor of Hong Kong appointed a special Committee, consisting of four prominent citizens (non Catholics) to investigate the future of the University. Their report has just been published in the local papers. One of their suggestions is that “certain local missionary bodies (notably the Jesuits)” should be invited to take lectureships in the University.
On May 18th, John Tse, our second Chinese candidate for the Society, sailed for Manila to begin his noviceship under the American Jesuits. John has been a pupil of Wah Yan College during the past give years. He knows three Chinese dialects and English. One of his sisters is a Carmelite in Hong Kong.
During Pentecost, Father MacDonald visited Canton, where he gave a series of lectures on Catholic Action, some in English, some in Chinese.
Father G. Byrne was presented with a Coronation Medal as a token of the Government’s appreciation of the work done by him in the Colony.
At Wah Yan, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, nine new members were received by Father Rector into the Sodality of Our Lady. All these new members are converts from paganism, and many of them have surprised us by the readiness with which they seem to have absorbed the Catholic spirit. The new Catholics take the Sodality very seriously, and the election of new members is carried out with great scrupulousness. A gathering of the members on the evening before the reception, on the occasion of a farewell tea to our novice, John Tse, who was an official of the Sodality revealed the fact that there is a bond of union and sympathy between the Catholic boys which is greater than we could have expected. This is very largely due to the influence of some of the leading boys, who are greatly respected, and give excellent example to the others. The speech made by the Prefect of the Sodality, Thomas Woo, during the farewell tea to John Tse, could hardly have been improved upon by a Catholic boy in any country. It showed a deep appreciation of the value of a religious vocation, and was expressed with a frankness and absence of self consciousness that were proof of real sincerity, Father Ryan is the Director of this. Sodality.
At Ricci during the month of May the students, on their own initiative, decided to recite the Rosary in common. An extract from the notice posted up on the House tabella by the Prefect of the Sodality inviting the students to attend, may be of interest :
“During the month of May the Rosary will be recited each evening in the chapel at 7.30 p.m. The chief intention will be to honour our Mother Mary, to whom the month of May is especially dedicated, and to ask her to grant us and our fellow-students success in our examinations. All are asked to join in this homely gathering.”
The members of the Sodality gathered several bundles of old clothes and presented them to the Little Sisters of the Poor. About fifteen students went to visit the Home for the Aged which is conducted by these Sisters.
Earlier in the year, Wah Yan won the Inter-Schools' swimming championship, and so had not much difficulty in also winning the Inter-Chinese-Schools' swimming championship.
Irish Province News 13th Year No 2 1938
Hong Kong Letters – January :
Wah Yan :
During the month of December we had fifteen baptisms--one of them a Chinese General who had been wounded earlier in the war. One of the boys is the best long-distance runner
in the College, a half-negro from Jamaica. Another of them is proving a regular apostle. He has already got his elder brother, has induced one of the finest families in the school to ask for baptism en bloc, and says that he will get one of his best friend, nicknamed “The Mosquito,” who has hitherto been regarded as unhookable.
The number of baptisms this year has been : Boys, 32 , others, 12, Total, 44. Since we took over Wah Yan we have been responsible for 217 baptisms.
The Christmas Examination began on December 11th and ended December 18th. During them we were allowed the valuable assistance of Messrs. Lawler and Walsh from Taai Lam Ch'ung. The distribution of prizes took place in the Queen's Theatre, one of the largest in Hong Kong, This Prize Day was a very great success. H. E. the new Governor, Sir G, H. Northcote, consented to preside, and to give away the prizes. Two plays were presented , a translation of “The Bishop’s Candlesticks” in Chinese, and an abbreviated version of “Macbeth” in English, The Governor said of the former that the acting was the best he had ever seen at any school Prize Day. It made a very deep impression on the boys and will, please God, produce much fruit later on in the way of conversions. Mr. Robert Wong, one of our masters had charge of the Chinese play, and Father Craig of “Macbeth”. The star
performer was Peter Tse, a brother of our novice, John Tse, who took the part of Lady Macbeth.
Irish Province News 28th Year No 1 1953
NEWS FROM THE MISSIONS :
China :
Regional Seminary, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, November 17, 1952.
Coming of Age :
On October 28th 1931 tbe Regional Seminary opened its doors to its first students. Class began on October 30th with twenty students nine theologians and eleven philosophers. October 28th, 1952, saw the Seminary twenty-one years old. In those twenty-one years three hundred and fifty six students passed through its classrooms. Some of these, especially since refugees from the Red Terror began pouring into Hong Kong, spent only a few months in Aberdeen before passing on to other destinations in Manila, Spain, American Macao. We have records of the ordinations of one hundred and twenty-one, of whom sixty-three did all their Major Seminary studies, philosophy and theology, in the Seminary. All through the twenty-one years the annual numbers in the Seminary varied greatly, growing steadily till the Second World War broke out, then declining until 1945, when the increase began once more, reaching its peak in 1949, when a hundred and twenty seminarians were at the same time within its walls. Three Seminaries helped to swell our numbers at that time, Kingsing which went later to Manila, Hankow which was reassembled in Macao, and Shanghai which returned to Red China while the door was still open. In the last few years the annual number bas stayed between seventy and eighty. This year we have already seventy two and we are expecting another four from Formosa
We have one ex-Jesuit-novice, one ex-Dominican-novice, one ex-Carmelite-novice, one ex-Trappist-oblate, one ex-Picpus, and one candidate for the Dominican Order who was refused a Visa for America where he hoped to enter the Dominicans and is continuing with us waiting for a more auspicious occasion.
We have a few late vocations. One was a civil servant for about six years in Mauritius Island, another was a humble helper of a Missionary in China. Several were soldiers in Chinese armies in Manchuria, one studied for some years in Japan. Some of them have had to attend Communist schools.
We have thirty-six from North China and thirty-six from South China. Twenty-nine are Theologians, forty-three are Philosophers. They belong to twenty-four different Dioceses, or Prefectures, or Missions, scattered among eight Ecclesiastical Provinces including Mauritius, where an Irish Holy Ghost Father is Bishop. Seven of them are members of the Congregation of the Disciples of the Lord. They have all taken the usual religious vows. We are expecting four more belonging to this Congregation.
Last Summer we saw the ordination of twelve of our students in the Cathederal of Hong Kong. Already earlier in this year three had been ordained. All of these young priests are now busy at work. It is not possible at present to get back into China, but into Hong Kong have streaned an endless succession of refugees, poor and rich, fleeing from the Red Terror. Among these, many of our priests are working. There is Fr. John Tse, for example, hard at work with a Maryknoll Father at real pioneering work. They are starting from the very begin ning without a chapel, or school, and with a little rented shack to house them. Besides the work of instruction, preparations are going ahead for a school. And Fr. Tse is busy trying to get the refugees to run a co-operative to produce, and sell without middle-men, cane furniture. Away in the islands to the south, others are working. Three are in Java where in the first few months of their stay they converted four hundred adults. In Borneo, Fr. Paang is busy trying to help on education for Catholics. He plans at the moment a fifteen-classroom school. Others are working in Formosa.
