Universal kingdom, local community and religious identity: The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America and Hong Kong (1918 to the present)

This dissertation seeks to reconstruct and analyze the history of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, also known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, in Hong Kong from 1918 to the present. Through this case study, it hopes to shed light on missionary history research on both Hong Kong history and American Catholic history.;The study endeavors to explore the missionaries' experience in Hong Kong as an unplanned settlement after World War I, their struggle during the Japanese War, their contribution to the reconstruction of Hong Kong in the postwar years and their change of mission emphasis to a greater focus on helping to establish local churches after Vatican II.;By defining the character of American Catholicism in general and the Maryknoll Fathers in particular, this case study traces the development of missions from Rome to America and then from the U.S. to Hong Kong. These American Fathers' individual personalities, political viewpoints and cultural challenges, even their relationship with the American Catholic Church and the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese are discussed and analyzed here. In Hong Kong, there was a transformation of these Fathers in terms of vision and identity. They as missionaries or "converters" had become "converts" of the Chinese culture as they worked among the Chinese. In many ways they were themselves transformed in terms of their vision and self identity.;The historical data presented in this paper is based on a thorough review of relevant primary and secondary sources. The primary resources used in this thesis include the personal diaries, memoirs, unpublished articles, pictures, reports and letters of the Maryknoll Fathers found in the Maryknoll Mission Archives in New York, Stanley House in Hong Kong, Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and in the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese. In addition, oral interviews conducted with several current Maryknoll Fathers add a personal touch to the historical records. The use of documentary materials, journals, papers, theses, books and newspaper articles relevant to this study also reveals the Hong Kong history related to the Maryknoll Fathers, who are a group of acculturating Americans of devotional, self-remoulding, optimistic, open-minded and fortitudinous characters.