After being unused for over 20 years, the Catholic Center in Macau will be redeveloped into a 20-storey building for exhibitions, formations, and hospitality purposes. The Macau Diocese has planned to redevelop the center since 2011 but no progress was made until this year.
Last month, the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau of Macau opened a public consultation to receive recommendations or objections for the redevelopment project.
Teresa Lo, assistant coordinator of the project, spoke to the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCANews), stating: “The consultation ended on July 4 and the Macau Diocese will now wait for the result and any final amendments of government documents to begin.”
The diocese hopes that the building can be revamped into the first Catholic-run hotel in Macau, with around 200 rooms for pilgrims and visitors.
Lo said that, in addition, public exhibition rooms will display the history of the Catholic Church in Macau and multi-function rooms will be available for faith formation services, as well as evangelization.
Father Pedro Chong, Vicar-General of the Macau Diocese, who is leading the redevelopment project, told TDM news four years ago that the redeveloped building would be mainly for pilgrims.
He also stated that he hoped the Catholic Center would become a spot for both locals and tourists to get in touch with Catholicism.
Local Catholics believe that the delay for the redevelopment project is partly due to the early retirement of Bishop José Lai in January last year. He was succeeded by Bishop Stephen Lee, a former auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong.
According to the UCANews media report, Catholics in Macau are excited to hear the announcement of redevelopment and are awaiting the opening of the revamped Catholic Center.
One local Catholic named Luis Leong said: “There were many debates on whether to renovate or to rebuild the center in the past. But I am happy to hear that it will be reconstructed because the building is dilapidated.”
As the Catholic Center is located in a busy area in central Macau where both tourists and locals gather, Leong believes that the new building can offer good evangelization opportunities with the exhibition rooms and provide a serene chapel for visitors to pray.
“Things are working well under Bishop Lee and Father Pedro Chong. We hope it is a sign of the revival of our local church,” Leong said.
