Catholic chaplain in Hong Kong says church called to accompany migrants in the streets

HONG KONG (OSV News) -- A Catholic priest who works with migrant domestic servants in Hong Kong says the church does its best work today not inside church buildings, but rather in the streets accompanying people.

"The church is no longer the building or what happens inside it. The church today is in the streets," said Father Jay Francis Flandez, a Divine Word missionary from the Philippines who serves as a chaplain to Filipino migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong.

"Many people do not go to church anymore, and yet they're searching for something. We need to accompany them where they are," he said. "We have tried to catechize, to teach them, and that hasn't always worked well. I think the best approach is to build friendships, join with them, accompany them, without condemnation, as they search for truth. We have our Catholic perspective, but we can best share that as companions rather than by imposition."

Father Flandez served Chinese parishes in Hong Kong for 10 years before the Hong Kong Diocese appointed him as chaplain to the Filipino community in 2014.

Hong Kong hosts some 400,000 migrant domestic workers, about 5% of the population. Slightly more than half come from the Philippines. Every day, they cook and clean and care for children, pets and the elderly. They are required to live in the home of the family that hires them, even though that often means sleeping in a hallway or cupboard.

"They are slaves," Father Flandez told OSV News.

The priest works with a network of shelters and advocacy groups that help abused migrants, as well as a wide variety of migrant organizations that speak out against mistreatment and lobby for better salaries and working conditions.

"The church can't do it alone," he said.

Yet many of the agencies and organizations of migrants have their roots in the church. Father Flandez is on the board of the ecumenical Mission for Migrant Workers, for example, whose director, Cynthia Abdon-Tellez, came to Hong Kong in the 1980s representing churches in the Philippines, wanting to hear from migrants how they could help. But first she had to find them, not an easy task as they were locked up in private homes six days of the week. On Sundays -- the migrants' one day off from work -- they went to church.

"So on Sundays we would look for buildings with crosses on top. It didn't matter if it was Catholic or Protestant. We would introduce ourselves to the pastor or priest and ask if we could talk to their people, because we had heard they had many Filipinos," she told OSV News.
Yet Father Flandez says church buildings don't fill with migrants as easily as in the past, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. So he has to go elsewhere to find his flock.

"At the beginning of my service as a chaplain, I didn't have an office. If a migrant wanted to see me, I'd tell them to meet me at McDonald's or Jollibee. That was much more effective, because they would understand that the priest was with them, was one with them," he said. Jollibee, like McDonald's, is a fast-food restaurant chain.

"Finally the bishop gave me an office," the priest said, "but I try to remember that I'm a migrant also, and so I don't spend much time there. I want the migrants to know I am accompanying them."

Even in the streets, spirituality is a key to the migrants' well-being, the priest said.

"They are forced to migrate because of the unjust economy back home, and often are treated poorly when here. But spirituality can help them. We try not to spiritualize their suffering or excuse oppression, but rather to help them understand that by standing up and living with dignity as baptized children of God, they can overcome some of the obstacles they face," Father Flandez said.

The priest said some things have improved for migrants since he first came to Hong Kong.

"When I was new here, there was much more physical abuse. The government had to run ads on television reminding people to respect their domestic helpers. There are still cases of such abuse today, but overall the situation is much better," he said.

"What many migrants suffer from today are financial scams that leave them in debt and too embarrassed to get help."

Father Flandez said Filipino popular organizations have done a good job educating their members about such scams, but the constant turnover of migrants means there are always new victims available.

"It's like a river that keeps on flowing into the city, bringing new workers to take the place of those who move on to other countries like Canada or who return home," he said.

Father Flandez said that studies done by the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong show that as many as half of migrants who return to their families in the Philippines are frustrated by their reception and end up coming back to Hong Kong within a couple of years. So he has developed a program to help migrants prepare for the challenges of reintegration to life in the Philippines.

"After being away for 10 or 15 or 20 years, they have difficulty reconnecting with their children, their neighbors, even with the larger society," he said. "For so long they have been their family's only provider. Now that they stop working, they can't provide anymore. For the family, they're useless. They have nothing to give. So they feel they are nothing. We try to help them prepare emotionally and spiritually for that crisis."

Father Flandez said that Catholic bishops in the Philippines encourage all parishes to have a migrant desk. Not all do, but the priest said that when such parish help is available, he tries to connect returning migrants to local parishes that can assist with reintegration.

The priest said many local parishes in Hong Kong have been rejuvenated by the presence of migrant workers. Many offer English Masses, where usually Filipinos make up 90% of the congregation, Father Flandez said.

"The migrants have helped liven things up here. They are more lively and they volunteer at greater numbers. If there's a big celebration, they're the one who arrange, decorate, prepare, and even perform the dancing and singing," he said.

"The Chinese have a more Roman understanding of liturgical celebration, but Filipinos come with guitars and drums and it's much more lively. Some Chinese come to the English Masses now because they like the celebration, the sense of life that migrants bring."