Bishop Zen warns: "Without freedom we will close our schools"
Hong Kong bishop said he is "ready" to close the Catholic schools in the Territory if the diocese loses its battle against the government's reform of school management, "discriminatory and racist".
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Scmp) - Schools could close if the Catholic Church loses its legal battle against the government's reform of school management, Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun warned yesterday.
He was speaking a day after the Catholic Diocese applied for a judicial review against the government's Education (Amendment) Bill passed into law last year. The new law - introduced by the Territory's Education and Manpower Department under Secretary Arthur Li Kwok-cheung - provides incentives to schools that immediately implement its provisions such as insurance for the staff, flexible funding, annual bonus for each school worth HK$ 350,000 ( 35,000, US$ 42,000). However, schools that receive public funds must set up a School Management Committee that is legally separate from the schools' Sponsoring bodies.
The government claims that this will ensure greater transparency and democracy; by contrast, school administrators say that it gives the government undue power to meddle in school affairs.
By and large, schools have refused to implement the law and have thus been penalised. This has led various Christian leaders to call the law "discriminatory and racist".
The Catholic leader said he would take the case all the way to the Court of Final Appeal if the legal action was defeated in the Court of First Instance. He said he hoped the court would not bow to political pressure. "The government initiated the legislation msgr. Zen said - we just want to run education according to our Catholic philosophy. If we are given the chance to do it, we will do it. If not, we at least tried our best."
Bishop Zen declined to estimate how many schools would face closure, saying the diocese would examine the situation of each one. Hong Kong diocese runs around 300 schools, from kindergartens to high schools.
Anglican church supported the legal action by the Catholic Church too.
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23/03/2009
