New | Cardinal John Tong Hon steers clear of controversy with Christmas speech
Annual speech focuses on the family and steers clear of hot-button issues such as gay marriage and political reform, in contrast to past years
The leader of the Catholic Church in the city chose to steer clear of controversial issues such as political reform and gay marriage and instead called for the strengthening of family ties in his Christmas message this year.
Cardinal John Tong Hon, the bishop of Hong Kong's Catholic diocese, gave a speech yesterday in stark contrast to the one he gave last Christmas when he reaffirmed the church's position that marriage should be between a man and a woman and called for universal suffrage and improvements in housing, medical services, education and retirement protection policies.
In 2010 he appealed for the release of jailed mainland rights activists Liu Xiaobo and Zhao Lianhai.
Yesterday, he touched on social problems relating to families including divorce, lack of parental care for children and misbehaviour among the young.
"To address this series of questions effectively as a society, each one of us needs to commit ourselves to reinforcing family values, and strengthen what binds us into a family," he said.
Without touching on the political reform debate, he said: "Our hope is that celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ will help us work together in building happy families and a free, democratic society."
