NESTLED AT THE end of Shiu Fai Terrace - a quiet, winding avenue off Stubbs Road - and built in the no-frills architectural style common in Hong Kong in the 1960s, United Mansion is a nondescript, concrete apartment block set in a largely affluent neighbourhood.
There's more to it than middle-class living, however: behind the doors of three of the building's spacious apartments lies the offices and dormitories for the Hong Kong arm of one of the most controversial - and powerful - sects in Catholicism.
In a city overflowing with churches of all denominations, Opus Dei's presence in Hong Kong is hardly felt. Its reluctance to advertise itself - even the doors to its headquarters are unmarked - has added a mysterious aura to a movement that sees discretion as paramount but which is notorious for its arch-conservative views.
Not that Opus Dei's activities are limited to those lavish flats on Shiu Fai Terrace. It's already has in its possession six similar 'centres' in upmarket premises all over Hong Kong. An impressive collection of property, considering that the Hong Kong branch of the movement has only 100 members and just 300 more non-member supporters known as 'co-operators'.
Reverend Harry Wong Yim-hung, an Opus Dei priest in Hong Kong, says they don't like to make much noise about their activities. 'The reason is not that we have anything secret, it's just that we find it unnatural to go out and tell others what we're doing. We're just ordinary people - we call it collective humility,' says Reverend Wong.
There's no prohibition for any member to reveal he is a member of the Opus Dei [work of God in Latin], Wong says. 'It's a private matter,' he says.
