History
During and after World War II, millions of refugees migrated to new homes across China, Hong Kong, and Macau. They fled Japanese troops, famine, disease, and personal losses, seeking somewhere to be safe and build a new life. Maryknollers in Hong Kong, Macau, and southern China provided these refugees with food, housing, medicine, jobs, and pastoral care through the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
After the war, the Fathers and Brothers returned to their center in Hong Kong and began working to help the two million refugees now in the area. Most came to Hong Kong with almost no possessions, no housing, and no way to earn a living. The Diocese of Hong Kong began or supported many programs for the refugees. These included food distribution, social centers, cooperatives, clinics, schools, housing, factories, churches, and more. The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers were given responsibility for all Diocesan programs in the refugee settlements in Chai Wan, Tung Tao Tsuen, Kowloontsai, and Ngau Tau Kok. Maryknollers like Msgr. John Romaniello, Fr. Paul Duchesne, and Fr. Howard Trube led the way, and by the mid-1950s their relief programs were very successful. By the late 1960s, these programs were no longer just for refugees, but for anyone who needed the help Maryknollers could provide.
In the late 1940s, the Maryknoll Sisters also took charge of refugee relief ministries in Hong Kong. Led by Sr. Mary Imelda Sheridan, they worked in King’s Park, Chai Wan, and Tung Tao Tsuen. Initially, the Sisters focused on bringing medical care, childcare, and schooling to the refugees. After several large fires in refugee shantytowns, the Sisters also began a successful housing program to build stone cottages using money raised through Catholic relief agencies. The Sisters built social welfare centers near the refugees’ homes, which grew into neighborhood activity hubs. They provided medical care, childcare, cottage industries, Church groups, housing relief, and more. The Sisters used the centers as the bases for their refugee relief ministries. Between relief programs at the centers, new schools, and pastoral ministries at local parishes, the Sisters offered constant support to refugees’ physical, educational, and spiritual needs.
In Macau, the Sisters worked in refugee relief ministries during and after the war. Five Sisters from Hong Kong evacuated to Macau in 1942, where they discovered a growing population of orphaned children in their neighborhood. A neighbor allowed the Sisters to use one of his out-buildings as a home for the children. Initially, the Sisters took in five orphans and provided them with schooling, medical care, and a loving home environment. By the end of the war, more than 1000 children had lived in the orphanage for some period of time. Until 1957, the Sisters also provided medical care and pastoral care to the local refugee population as thousands fled China.
Maryknollers provided relief to refugees in mainland China as well. When Japanese troops invaded in 1937, the Chinese economy crashed, leaving people desperately poor and homeless as they fled the advancing soldiers. Maryknollers provided refuge in their churches, seminaries, houses, and convents to protect people from the troops and give them necessary food and medicine. As the war went on, the economy worsened and crops failed. In cities like Pakkai and Sunwui, Maryknollers started soup kitchens and dispensaries that served hundreds of people each day. Maryknollers also worked in government-run refugee centers, began orphanages and schools, and acted as intermediaries with Japanese soldiers to get supplies for the refugees in their villages. With food, medicine, and money donated by charities, governments, and churches around the world, the Maryknollers did what they could to help in mainland China both during and after the war.
Collections Related to Refugee Relief
MFBA China Missions Collection, Series 2-4 and 6
MFBA Hong Kong Regional History Collection
MFBA Mission Diaries Collection, Series 2 Subseries 3-8, 11-12
MFBA Newsletters, Series 2 Subseries 2
MFBA China History Project Records, Series 7 Subseries 3-5
MSA China-Hong Kong-Macau Missions Collection, Series 5 Subseries 1, 3, 6-10 and Series 9
MSA Mission Diaries Collection, Series 2 Subseries 2-5, 8-9, 14