"From what I know professionally, I don't feel there has been any change," said John Tong, a bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview recently.

Foreign Catholic missionaries continue to enter Hong Kong to preach unhindered, he said.

"Some people were once worried about the possible tightening of restrictions on missionaries after the handover during the pre- handover times. But after the handover, I can tell you there has actually been no tightening of restrictions, and we are approaching the fifth year after the handover soon," he said.

In fact, the immigration procedure for visiting foreign Catholic missionaries has been made more convenient for the Catholic missionaries after the handover, he said.

"After the handover, the missionaries can take leave from Hong Kong up to three years, and come back here with a simple re-entry procedure.

"But before the handover, they could take leave of up to one year only. And if they exceeded their leave, they would have to apply from start from their home country. This would mean we had to issue sponsorship letters to provide proof, and the party concerned would have to start (the procedure) from zero basically, " he said.

Religious lessons in Christian schools continue to be offered without any interference.

"Some people had expressed concerns before the handover that religious classes in the school curricula might have to be scrapped after the handover.

"But as we can see, in reality we can continue to offer religious lesson unhindered.... Missionaries who are stationed at certain Catholics school continue to live inside those schools unhindered, contrary to the concern of certain people before the handover that they would not be allowed to live in the schools any more," Tong said.

Tong also commented on the Catholic church's church planting progress in Hong Kong in the past few years. He said the original 63 parishes in Hong Kong have been merged down to 54 due to population changes, while at least one new church was and is being built in the New Territories area of the HKSAR.

One of the major Protestant church denominations takes the same view as the Catholics when it comes to the protection of religious freedom here.

The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui or the Hong Kong Anglican Church here said since the handover, all religious activities have been operating in a normal manner and without interference.

"Religions have been allowed to preach, to build schools, to provide social services freely," said Peter Kwong, archbishop of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, stressed in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

Mufti Muhammad Arshad, chief imam of the Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Center, told Xinhua that the Islamic community continues to enjoy freedom of worship.

Coming from Pakistan and appointed the chief imam here a year and a half ago, he said, "Here I find every kind of freedom in Hong Kong, including religious freedom. Within our boundary, we are free, and no one has interrupted us, no one has objected us. We are free to worship whatever we think right, and whatever our religion commands us to."

Both the publication of Islamic materials and education for Islamic community have been and are being carried out without interference, Arshad said.

"I think the government of Hong Kong is observing the rules of religious freedom," he said.

Sik Chi Wai, superintendent of the Po Lin Monastery, also said that the HKSAR government has "adopted a non-interference policy towards various religions."

"The government has also not made any law which restricts the development of religions here. So long as one obeys the law generally, one can enjoy a high level of freedom."

The Buddhist community, which had been hoping for the public holiday for a long time to celebrate the birth of the Buddha, finally had their wish realized after the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, when a statutory holiday was introduced.

"From this, we can see that the government did respect religion. For this we want to express our gratitude," Sik said.

(China Daily June 17, 2002)