Pope Francis named Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang as the bishop of Macau on January 16, to succeed Bishop José Lai Hung-seng, aged 70, who resigned for health reasons.
Bishop Lee, aged 59, was an auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong before the new appointment. He will take possession of the Diocese of Macau on January 23 at the
Cathedral in Macau. The mass also will mark the 440th anniversary of the establishment of the Macau Diocese.
The Vatican said that the appointment was “an expression of the pastoral solicitude and the love of Pope Francis and of the Holy See for the Church in China and, in a special way, for the Diocese of Macau which has for more than four centuries been a bridge for cultural exchange between the Orient and the West, and for the spreading of the Catholic faith.”
The appointment was released at noon time at the Vatican on January 16, and was announced at nearly the same time in Macau and Hong Kong (7pm the same day).
Bishop Lee, who was attending a church event in Hong Kong at the time the announcement was made, said that he had been surprised by the move. He said that he will work with the clergy and other people in Macau, in order to promote Church affairs in the city.
Bishop Lee was born in Hong Kong. He joined the Opus Dei seminary in Rome in 1984, and later completed his doctorate degree in Canon law in Spain. He returned to Hong Kong in 1989, one year after he was ordained a priest in Spain.
He was appointed the Regional Vicar for East Asia Region in the Opus Dei Prelature in 2012, with the areas he served including Macau and Hong Kong.
Pope Francis named Lee as an auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong in July 2014 and he was ordained bishop on 30 August 2014.
