Written by CIN SocCom

Hong Kong, 12 July 2024 -- On 11 July 2024, Brother Salesian Paul Li Tung Biu, with confreres, relatives, friends, and the big group of Don Bosco Past Pupils, celebrated the 80th Anniversary of what he calls his "being embraced by St. John Bosco".

It was the last year of WWII. Paul Li was one of 10 children in a poor family in Kowloon, the mainland section of the Hong Kong British Colony (at that time under Japanese occupation). In the war-torn city port, famine was raging. Corpses of people dead from starvation lay on the street pavements. Paul Li's father and mother had no way to provide sufficient food for all their children. But their parish priest, who had baptized them all, the Sicilian P.I.M.E. missionary Fr. Carmelo Orlando, was a great lover of Don Bosco. He set up a statue of Don Bosco in St. Teresa's Church, his parish church in Kowloon.

Fr. Orlando thought: "Only Don Bosco can solve the problem of this poor family." On July 7, 1944, he sent, with a recommendation letter, two of the ten brothers across the harbor to the North-East district of Hong Kong Island, Shau Kei Wan. There at address Island Road 1 was Salesian Missionary House, the Salesian Studentate that, beginning with January 1942, had opened its doors to war orphans, thus becoming also the so-called "Shau Kei Wan Salesian School and Orphanage".

Four days later, on July 11, he did the same with a third child of the same family, 8-year-old Paul Li. Fr. Orlando gave a recommendation letter to his elder brother and told him: "Bring your little brother to the Salesian Fathers and Brothers in Aberdeen Trade School. Their address is Island Road 109" (Salesian Missionary House and Aberdeen Trade School were located at the head and at the end of what at that time was the long Island Road that stretched around half of Hong Kong Island). The Aberdeen Trade School was so called because it was in Hong Kong Island's South-West district of Aberdeen.

The elder Li brother took his younger brother by the hand and set out on foot from Mong Kok in Kowloon. It was fine weather. But at that time, the fine weather meant frequent air raids by the Allied Air Forces in Hong Kong. Luckily, that day, no warplanes appeared in the sky. The two brothers, by ferry boat, crossed the harbor and landed in Hong Kong Central. They began walking along the way, asking for indications of their destination. They walked first Westward, passing by St. Louis School and St. Anthony's Church, then Southward through the Dairy Farm in Pokfulam, and finally Eastward by the Fish Market in Aberdeen.

After a 4-hour walk, the two brothers reached Aberdeen Trade School (today's Aberdeen Technical School, ATS). As they entered the school, they met the Polish Salesian missionary Fr. Marian Mielczarek, who gave little Paul a bowl of rice. Paul devoured it without even thinking of sharing it with his elder brother. For 4 days, he had not eaten any rice.

This is how Brother Salesian Paul Li met, as he likes to say, "the embrace of St. John Bosco", an embrace from which, he says, "I have never departed". This morning, to commemorate that fateful "7-Eleven", together with some Don Bosco Past-Pupils (his students in ATS 60 years ago), he walked from Central to West Point, then from there by bus reached Aberdeen Technical School, his Salesian Alma Mater. In the school chapel, at 11:00 hours, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze Kiun celebrated the Thanksgiving Mass for Br. Li's 80-year old embrace by Don Bosco. The Mass was participated by about thirty well-wishers. During the homily, Card. Zen said that also for him July this year meant the 80th anniversary of his encounter with Don Bosco. On 19 July 1944, at that time, at the feast of St. Vincent de Paul in Shanghai, he was presented by his mother as a naughty 12-year-old boy to Salesian Provincial Don Carlo Braga.

Don Bosco's embrace proves to be long-lasting. It has shaped as much the life of Br. Paul Li as that of Cardinal Zen. Today's 7-Eleven also happens to be the feast of St. Benedict. The Thanksgiving Mass was celebrated in his honor. Card. Zen, in the homily, pointed out how St. Bendict's "Ora et labora" informed the life of our Father and Founder, St. John Bosco. It has also informed the 80 years of Br. Paul Li and Cardinal Zen. May it continue to inform the lives of all members of the Salesian Family!

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