Hong Kong Catholic churches will not hold annual Tiananmen memorial mass for first time in decades over national security law concerns
- Hong Kong Catholic diocese reveals decision on Tuesday, saying there are ‘different ways to remember the deceased’
- Residents can still make bookings at Victoria Park from June 1 to 5 for football games, Leisure and Cultural Services Department says
Catholic churches in Hong Kong will not hold their annual mass for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown for the first time in three decades, citing concerns from frontline colleagues on whether the event would “contravene the national security law”.
The Hong Kong Catholic diocese announced its decision on Tuesday, saying: “According to the Catholic faith, we can commemorate the deceased in different ways, holding a mass is of course one way, but just praying for the deceased in private or in small groups will also be very meaningful.”
Meanwhile, no group has shown an interest in holding commemorative events marking the June 4, 1989 crackdown since the alliance behind the annual vigil at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay disbanded last September.
Authorities, including the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and police, said they had not received any bookings or notifications of events to be held in Victoria Park on June 4.
A department spokesman said it had suspended all bookings on “non-designated usages” of the football pitches in Victoria Park, citing public health concerns arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. But “members of the public could still book the venues for football games” during June 1 to 5, he said.
A police spokesman said the force had not received any applications for events on Hong Kong Island on June 4.
“Police respect the right of the public to express their views peacefully, and will conduct an independent risk assessment based on the latest situation when handling each public event application,” the spokesman said, adding that no details of any police deployment on that day would be made public.
In a reply to the Post, the diocese said its decision did not mean it “disapproved of the memorial mass”.
“Our frontline colleagues and a few [Catholic Justice and Peace Commission] members are concerned that such activity, if held this year, might violate the national security law now in force,” it said.
On Tuesday, Zen and five other activists denied charges of allegedly failing to register a legal defence fund that provided financial help to protesters facing trouble stemming from the 2019 social unrest.
Hours after Zen was released on bail, he held a mass on Tuesday evening on the “World Day of Prayer for the Church in China”.
Cardinal Zen, 5 others deny charges linked to fund for Hong Kong protesters
Reverend Peter Douglas Koon Ho-ming, a lawmaker and former provincial secretary general of the Anglican church in Hong Kong, said the church never held events on June 4 in the past, but believed it was lawful to pray for the dead and hold a mass as long as it was not something subversive.
“I respect the Catholic diocese’s decision, and they might have [sought] legal advice,” he said. “But I think it is always fine to pray for the deceased.”
The Post has reached out to other churches in the city for comment.
Political commentator Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said Zen’s case had sent out a warning to the religious community that even religious leaders could not be exempted under the national security law.
“It is natural for them to play safe, as there are still limited cases under the national security law, and churches so far may not have enough clarity to issue guidelines for their clergies on what the red lines could be,” he said.
“But I guess it is still safe if it’s some private event and believers are allowed to go to churches and pray on their own on June 4.”
For three decades, Hongkongers had gathered in Victoria Park, held lit candles and remembered the day in 1989 when military tanks rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and quelled weeks of student-led protests calling for more democracy and an end to corruption.
Hong Kong authorities banned the vigil in 2020 and last year, citing public health concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, when police enforced the ban on the vigil and deployed thousands of officers across the city to prevent any defiant gatherings, seven Catholic churches pressed ahead with their annual mass, despite banners condemning them plastered outside the premises.
They were inviting chaos and siding with the devil, one of the banners outside the Holy Cross Church in Sai Wan Ho read.
Many people turned up for mass, while Zen, retired bishop of Hong Kong, led hundreds in prayer at St Andrew’s Catholic Church in Hang Hau, saying authorities had still failed to listen to people’s voices after decades.
“The tragedy of June 4 will not leave us gradually. It may re-emerge … if the authorities still believe they can kill patriotic young people for the so-called common good,” he had said.
