Father general of Hong Kong's Society of Jesus pulls plug on proposed Jesuit arts college in Sai Kung
Project dropped after a feasibility study with money already raised to be returned to donors
The proposal to start a Jesuit liberal arts college in Hong Kong will not go ahead after the father general of the Society of Jesus decided to drop the project, the preparatory taskforce for the college announced yesterday.
"The decision was made after [the father general] has consulted in a macro scale, which included our feasibility report, and weighed the pros and cons of different options and models," Father Stephen Chow Sau-yan, chairman of the taskforce, posted on Facebook yesterday.
"Although we are very much disappointed by the decision, we have to remind ourselves that our mission is to conduct feasibility studies of the project for the leadership to consider the appropriateness of approval."
Chow added that his team had invested various resources in the project in the past six years and he called for people not to make further financial donations to the project.
A spokeswoman said the taskforce had been keeping all the money donated in a separate account and it would commit an auditor to the account. Money left in the account would be returned to the donors, she added.
She said the taskforce received a letter from the father general - the head of the Catholic order - on May 1 informing them about the decision. The force then took a few days to relay the news to other stakeholders, including Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim, she said.