Priest wrong to single out Li as a devil, leader admits
A Catholic Church leader said yesterday he was critical of the city's dominant developers, but added that tycoon Li Ka-shing should not have been singled out.
Vicar-general Michael Yeung Ming-cheung, speaking on the sidelines of a Caritas bazaar in Mong Kok, said: 'I am sometimes angered by property developers too, but we shouldn't single anyone out.'
He was referring to a remark by Father Thomas Law Kwok-fai, who likened Li to the Devil at a Halloween party. He said he had not spoken to Law because they were 'too cross' with each other over the incident.
The church has expressed 'regret' over the remark, causing Law, a top priest within the hierarchy, to say he felt 'betrayed' for not being consulted before the diocese issued an official statement.
Yeung said yesterday that no one was betrayed and that no apology was given to Li.
Commenting on the official statement of regret, he said: 'It is basic courtesy when bad things happen.'
He insisted it was not an apology, but similar to what one might send to 'a bereaved friend', a conciliatory gesture.
'Mr Law, please try to understand what people do in these situations,' he said, adding he would approach Law when things quietened down.
'It's not a good time now,' Yeung said. 'We are too cross to talk to each other.'
Contrary to some reports, Yeung said Li, Hong Kong's richest man, did not complain to the diocese's leadership.
He said concerns were expressed by Gerald Ma, a senior staff member with Li's Cheung Kong (Holdings) also on the committee of Caritas, to Yeung. This was followed by a phone conversation between Li and Yeung.
'I'm not licking his boots here, but he really wasn't complaining. He only asked me patiently: 'Why is it so?' which was a reasonable question to ask given the good relationship he has with the church.'
Li has supported many of the church's nursing homes and social services, for instance the Caritas Li Ka-shing Care and Attention Home for the Elderly and the Caritas Family Care Crisis Support Centre, according to Yeung.
'[I] wasn't so sure about it myself, I then told him 'I will find out. I will get to the bottom of this',' he said.
'Then he said his support and donations to the church would go on, and I thanked him. And that was all.'
The diocese issued a statement last week, conveying their regret for upsetting Li. At a church Halloween party, Law said ghosts and goblins were not terrible compared with the 'real devils'. He said: 'If Li Ka-shing were here tonight he would be scared to death. He should be afraid about the last few years of his life.
'Those [who build] inflated buildings will definitely be scared to death. If Cafe de Coral came, it would be even more dreadful. Those are the real man-eating devils.'
Law said he used Li as an example to condemn the 'evil practices' of property developers who inflated prices of their flats immorally.The remarks angered the tycoon.
But some Catholic activists and parishioners expressed support for the remarks.
Law said he could never have imagined that what he told people in jest after a party, rather than from the altar, would draw the wrath of Li.