Michael Yeung Ming-cheung (; 1 December 1945 – 3 January 2019) was the eighth

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

bishop of Hong Kong. He was consecrated on 30 August 2014.

Early life

Yeung Ming-cheung was born in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

in 1945. He completed his primary and secondary schooling and began working for an import-export company in Hong Kong. In 1972 at the age of 26 he entered the

Pontifical Urban University The Pontifical Urban University, also called the ''Urbaniana'' after its names in both Latin and Italian, is a pontifical university that was under the authority of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The university's mission is to ...

to study theology and philosophy and graduated in 1978.

Priest

He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

a priest for the diocese of Hong Kong on 10 June 1978. After his ordination he took a variety of pastoral and administrative roles. From 1978 to 1980 he was vicar in Ha Kwai Chung District,

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

; from 1980 to 1982 he earned an MA in social communications from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In 1982 he returned to Hong Kong and was appointed director of the office of Social Communications for the diocese. He held this post until 1986. He was then appointed parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes parish, where he served until 1989 when he was appointed chaplain at Yu C.K. Memorial College. He returned to the United States to study at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

where in 1990 he earned a Master's in Education (Ed.M.). He returned to Hong Kong in 1990 and held the post of director of the office of education until 2013. He was the head of

Caritas Hong Kong Caritas Hong Kong is a charitable organisation, a member of Caritas Internationalis, founded by the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong in July 1953. It started with relief and rehabilitation services to the poor and the distressed after the Second ...

and was appointed

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

of the diocese in 2009. He was later appointed a member of the Pontifical Council ''Cor Unum''.

Bishop

On 11 July 2014,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

appointed him

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Mons in Numidia and named him one of three Auxiliary Bishops of Hong Kong along with

Joseph Ha Chi-shing Joseph Ha Chi-shing, O.F.M. (, born 4 March 1959), is a Roman Catholic bishop and currently the auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong. Biography Ha was born in Hong Kong, and started learning Catholic catechism and was then baptised during his study i ...

, O.F.M. and

Stephen Lee Bun-sang Stephen Lee Bun-sang (born 10 November 1956, in Hong Kong; in ) is a Hongkonger Catholic prelate who has served as Bishop of Macau since 2016. Lee entered the priesthood in 1988 and became Auxiliary Bishop of Hong Kong in 2014. He is a num ...

. Consecrated on 30 August 2014, Yeung was appointed the

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of the diocese on 13 November 2016, and succeeded Cardinal John Tong Hon as the Bishop of Hong Kong on 1 August 2017. On 27 June 2018,

AsiaNews ''AsiaNews'' is an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). The editor-in-chief of AsiaNews is Father Bernardo Cervellera, a PIME missionary who also heads Agenzia Fides, the official news ...

reported that Yeung had tendered his resignation to Pope Francis in order to dedicate himself to Caritas. Yeung said he had only suggested that he would like to work for Caritas when he retired from his Hong Kong position. He received two honorary doctorates: one in Social Science from the

Open University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU, previously known as the Open University of Hong Kong) is a public university in Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is the only self-financing university set up by the Hong Kong government. The universi ...

, and another one from the

Australian Catholic University Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses and also maintains a campus in Rome. History Australian Catholic University was opened on 1 January 1991 following the amalgamation ...

Illness and death

Yeung reportedly tripped over his

alb An Alb is a liturgical vestment. ALB, Alb or alb may also refer to: * Alb, Alpine transhumance in Allemannic German Places * Alb (Upper Rhine), a tributary of the Upper Rhine in northern Black Forest near Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany * Al ...

and injured himself when stepping upstairs before celebrating a Mass in December 2018. He made his last public appearance when he celebrated the

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...

Midnight Mass In many Western Christian traditions, Midnight Mass is the first liturgy of Christmastide that is celebrated on the night of Christmas Eve, traditionally beginning at midnight when Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day. This popular Christm ...

at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception the same month. Beginning 27 December 2018, Yeung underwent treatment for

liver failure Liver failure is the inability of the liver to perform its normal synthetic and metabolic functions as part of normal physiology. Two forms are recognised, acute and chronic (cirrhosis). Recently, a third form of liver failure known as acute- ...

brought on by

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, chronic liver failure or chronic hepatic failure and end-stage liver disease, is a chronic condition of the liver in which the normal functioning tissue, or parenchyma, is replaced ...

at the Canossa Hospital. He died at 1:30pm (

Hong Kong time Hong Kong Time (abbreviation: HKT; ) is the time in Hong Kong, observed at UTC+08:00 all year round. The Hong Kong Observatory is the official timekeeper of the Hong Kong Time. It is indicated as Asia/Hong_Kong in the IANA time zone database ...

) on 3 January 2019 from the illness. Following Yeung's death, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Tong

apostolic administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

to lead the diocese until an appointment of a new bishop.

Stephen Chow Stephen Chow Sing-chi (; born 22 June 1962) is a Hong Kong filmmaker and former actor, known for his mo lei tau comedy. His career began in television, where he gained recognition through variety shows and TV dramas. Chow's breakthrough came in 1 ...

was appointed Bishop of Hong Kong on 17 May 2021 and was consecrated bishop and installed on 4 December 2021.

Public stances

Throughout his career as a Catholic clergyman, Yeung was at the center of various controversies. He was criticised for comparing participants of the

2014 Hong Kong protests A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after th ...

, as well as

homosexuals Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

, to those who use drugs. Yeung's close ties with

Carrie Lam Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor ( Cheng; ; born 13 May 1957) is a retired Hong Kong politician who served as the fourth Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2017 to 2022, after serving as Chief Secretary for Administration for five years. After g ...

, the 5th

Chief Executive of Hong Kong The chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and head of the Government of Hong Kong. The position was created to replace the office of Governor of ...

, were also a source of controversy. Yeung said Lam is a Catholic, and he had good ties with her for years. Yeung also said he knew her on a professional level, during her time as the Director of the

Social Welfare Department The Social Welfare Department () is a department of the Hong Kong Government responsible for providing welfare services to the community. Responsibilities The department provides services to families and children, the elderly, recovering crimin ...

, and that he had no reasons to reject her, and sever ties. Yeung's ties with the rich and powerful in Hong Kong has also been a source of criticism. Yeung was also criticised for allegedly defending mainland Chinese authorities during a news conference over controversies concerning the removal of crucifixes from church buildings or demolition of churches. He also said that, since China has regulations on religion, he will respect their rules.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeung, Michael Ming-cheung 1945 births 2019 deaths 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Hong Kong Roman Catholic bishops of Hong Kong Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni People from Shanghai Syracuse University alumni Deaths from liver failure Deaths from cirrhosis