HONG KONG (UCAN) -- HONG KONG  -- The three bishops of Hong Kong and Macau dioceses will meet with Pope Benedict XVI on June 27, during their first ad limina visit to the Vatican, the Chinese Church leaders told UCA News recently.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong told UCA News June 2 that the pope may meet the three bishops together or separately on June 27, adding that the visits were arranged in mid-May.

Cardinal Zen, 76, said he would again ask the pope to accept his retirement and appoint an auxiliary bishop for Hong Kong.

Diocesan leaders normally make ad limina visits to the Vatican every five years to report on their dioceses. The Hong Kong and Macau Church leaders will submit their reports to the Vatican separately and before the visits, UCA News learned.

This will be the first ad limina visit for Cardinal Zen and Coadjutor Bishop John Tong Hon since they were ordained Hong Kong's coadjutor and auxiliary bishop, respectively, in December 1996, half a year before Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule. Cardinal Zen succeeded as head of the diocese upon the death of Cardinal John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung in September 2002. Bishop Tong was appointed coadjutor with the right to succeed Cardinal Zen this past January.

This will also be the first ad limina visit for Bishop Jose Lai Hung-seng, who became coadjutor bishop of Macau in 2001, two years after Macau's reversion to Chinese rule. Bishop Lai succeeded as bishop in June 2003.

Pope Benedict has met all three bishops previously, during meetings of the Vatican's China commission, of which the Hong Kong and Macau prelates are members, and on other occasions.

Bishop Lai told UCA News on June 4 he was preparing the Macau diocesan report and hoped to submit it in advance to the pope. He added that he will visit the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples during the trip.

Cardinal Zen said he and Bishop Tong will also visit the congregation and other Vatican offices June 25-26.

Both dioceses come under the purview of the congregation.

The diocesan leaders' ad limina visits are overdue. Cardinal Wu made his last visit in 1995, and now retired Bishop Domingos Lam Ka-tseung made his last visit as head of Macau diocese in 2000. Pope John Paul II received both of them.

The Hong Kong bishops were scheduled to make a visit in 2003, but the late pope's poor health forced them to postpone.

Father Lawrence Lee Len, chancellor of Hong Kong diocese, told UCA News on June 4 that various reasons prompted delays even before then. These included time for the diocese to adjust to the change in territorial sovereignty in 1997, and the change in Church leadership after Cardinal Wu's death.

Bishops' conferences take turns making ad limina visits in continental groupings, but Hong Kong and Macau dioceses are exceptional as neither belongs to any bishops' conference, he pointed out.

The Hong Kong diocesan report will be voluminous, Father Lee said, since it will cover 13 years of local Church development. Among the aspects it will include he cited priestly and lay formation, religious education, evangelization, social concerns, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, the Church's interaction with local society, exchange with the mainland Church, and the diocese's role in China-Vatican relations.

Kwun Ping-hung, a Hong Kong-based observer of China-Vatican relations, noted that the date of the visits is close to the first anniversary of the release of Pope Benedict's letter to mainland Chinese Catholics on June 30, 2007.

He told UCA News he believes the pope might make use of the occasion to discuss with the three bishops about development and reconciliation within the China Church, and China-Vatican relations over the past year.

Pope Benedict made Bishop Zen a cardinal in March 2006. Currently, Hong Kong diocese has about 350,000 Catholics.

Macau diocese has about 20,000 Catholics.

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