Appeal from Bishop Tong for Caritas-Hong Kong’s annual fund-raising drive

Give Them a Ray of Hope

“Love – caritas – will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the state so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love … There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable.”

(Extract from Encyclical Letter of the Supreme PontiffBenedict XVI on Christian Love)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The wide range of services that Caritas-Hong Kong has, over the past five decades, been providing for the community, especially the Last, the Least, and the Lost, in the social welfare, education and medical fields, can be aptly described as meeting the need for a service of love as depicted by the Holy Father in the above-quoted encyclical.

To enable Caritas to sustain its multi-faceted community services, a large-scale Fund Raising Campaign is organised each year. The running of these fund raising activities would not be possible, or successful, without the support of a very large number of dedicated people in our community, both lay and religious, who give unstintingly of their time, energy, talents and material goods. Throughout the past years, regardless of whatever the external financial climate might be, there have been donors who give generously to help the needy. This must be because these kind-hearted people had so strong a sense of empathy with the poor, the weak and the underprivileged, that they would lend their helping hands so magnanimously. This amply illustrates that genuine love for one’s neighbour led these benevolent people to share their wealth both in good days and in bad times.

I thank you all most sincerely for your commitment to our brothers and sisters in need, children of God and members of Christ. With great confidence, I appeal again for your generous support to make this campaign a great success.

“Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back” (Luke 6:38).

With my blessings and prayers,

Sincerely yours in Christ,

+ JOHN TONG

Bishop of Hong Kong

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