Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel

Peng Chau Chapel celebrates the Diamond Jubilee

Queen of Peace Chapel in Peng Chau is reaching a milestone as it celebrates 60 years of witnessing to the faith on this outlying island of Hong Kong. With an area of just under 1 square kilometre, Peng Chau is home to about 6,400 people. The history of the Catholic community on the island is a perfect rendition of the parable of the widow’s mite in the Gospel (Mk. 12: 41-44).

It was in the autumn of 1958, a middle class domestic worker Ms. Chen An Dang donated her one-and-a-half storied building at No.21 Wing Hing Street to the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese for the purpose of evangelization. After receiving the property, the then Bishop Lorenzo Bianchi and Procurator Father Lido Mencarini assigned the community under the jurisdiction of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Cheung Chau.

Father Nicola Ruggiero, the then parish priest, renovated the premises into a chapel and initiated the work of sharing the Gospel on the island. The efforts of the evangelization activities soon began to show results and at one point of time, the number of converts on the Island exceeded 400, far more than the small chapel could hold.

Eight years later, the Church opened the Holy Family School in 1965, and Father Francesco Ricciardi, the then parish priest changed the venue of the Sunday Mass and the catechism classes to the school.

In the year 1976, the Hong Kong Diocese acquired two adjacent ground-and-mezzanine floor units in the Far East Consortium building. The walls between the two units were torn down and the combined premises were renovated into the present chapel. The chapel looks from the outside not much different from the adjacent residential units.

From 1959 to 1974, the priests from Our Lady of Joy Abbey – Trappist Monastery served in Peng Chau to celebrate Mass for 14 years. In 1974 priests from Fatima parish in Cheung Chau once again began to help in Peng Chau.

On 1 December 1979, the church became an independent parish and Father Cham Man-Wah became the parish priest of Peng Chau and he served in the Island till 1988. By 1995, the parish was kept under the Epiphany Parish of Mui Wo, Lantau.

Although the Catholic community of Peng Chau is very small, it makes its presence felt by actively involving in the life of the island. The Holy Family School still continues to serve the islanders.

Jubilee is a time of thanksgiving. The Peng Chau Catholic community gratefully remembers all the missionary priests and nuns who have toiled in this island, nurturing the seeds of faith. Missionary societies and religious communities of The Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), Society of the Divine Word(SVD) and Claretian Missionaries (CMF) and Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Angels (MNDA) have served this parish for many years.

In the autumn of 1958, Madam Chan On Don, a lady who worked as a maid, donated her only property located at 21, Wing Hing Street, in Peng Chau to the Diocese for evangelisation.  Bishop Bianchi and the General Secretary Rev. MENCARINI, Lido PIME accepted the offer and handed the premises over to Fatima Parish of Cheung Chau. 

The parish rector REV. NICOLA RUGGIERO, PIME refurbished the property, turning it into a church and commenced religious services for the locals.  On 15.8.1958 (feast day of the Ascension of Holy Mother), the first batch of 30 catechumens were baptised in the chapel.   By 1995, the chapel was placed under the care of Epiphany Parish of Mui Wo.

Since November 2015, the Claretian Missionaries take care of the parish. Our Lady, Queen of Peace is the heavenly patron of the Catholic Community of Peng Chau. Although no priest resides in the island, priests from Mui Wo comes to the Chapel three days of the week to celebrate the Eucharist and conduct Bible Classes. 

Every year, the first Sunday of October is observed as the feast day of the Peng Chau Chapel, bringing together the small Catholic community to proclaim their faith and to share the peace and joy of their faith.

Published on: 20-05-2022 (Last modified: 14-07-2022)