By Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Jesuit Father Jeffrey Chang
Honolulu-born Jesuit Father Jeffrey Chang has been named head of the Catholic Church’s school of theology in Taiwan. His appointment as president and dean of the Fu Jen Faculty of Theology of St. Robert Bellarmine was approved by the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education and took effect on Aug. 1. His formal installation was Sept. 12 at a Mass celebrating the beginning of the new school year.
Father Chang is the son of Linda Mae and the late Albert Chang of Mary, Star of the Sea Parish in Waialae-Kahala. As a student in the parish’s elementary school, he and his older brother were frequent altar servers. But there was no tell-tale sign of what Jeffrey might be when he grew up. His parents left their three children to discover their own paths in life. Yet, as his mother said, “It seems that all he has been through has prepared him for this.”
After graduating from Punahou, Chang earned a bachelor’s degree in foreign service at the Jesuit-run Georgetown University. Growing up in Hawaii’s multicultural society provided a good background for studying international relations and the complexity of our increasingly globalized world.
In 1988, Jeffrey entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Maryland. Religious formation and studies took him coast to coast, with philosophy studies at Fordham University in New York and theology studies at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. He was ordained a priest in Baltimore in 1999.
Within a year he was transferred to Asia. “The Jesuit vocation is to find God in all things and to go where there are greater unmet needs be that geographic, or in types of work or with types of people,” he said.
For the past 18 years he has worked in various places in Asia, along the way learning Mandarin Chinese. As a student at Punahou, he had not been a very serious student of Mandarin. Years later, the needs of mission motivated him to attain proficiency.
In 2012, Jeffrey was sent to teach at Fu Jen Faculty of Theology of St. Robert Bellarmine, the only school of theology directly authorized by the Vatican to offer baccalaureate, licentiate (master’s), and doctoral degrees with Mandarin Chinese as the language of instruction. Students include diocesan seminarians and priests, Jesuits and members of other religious orders, sisters and laypeople.
Originally founded in Shanghai, this theology school transferred temporarily to the Philippines after the 1949 upheaval in China. After the Second Vatican Council, when theological instruction shifted from Latin to local languages, the school moved to Taiwan where instruction has been offered in Chinese for the past 50 years.
Students come from Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Chinese-speaking communities in Singapore, Malaysia and even California. Young foreign missionaries to Taiwan also study at the school in order to develop their abilities to evangelize in Chinese.
“I, myself, never had the opportunity to study theology in Chinese,” Father Chang said. “Thus it has been a challenge to teach the subject in the Chinese language. Still, the work of education is fundamentally about teaching people; the subject matter and language of instruction are secondary considerations.”
For the development of the church, theological education and research in local languages is very important. The Chinese-speaking church has developed slowly but steadily, with a growing body of Chinese-language theology books and journals. Although it would be preferable to have a local director for the theology center, at this point in time the Taiwan church could not find a suitable candidate.
Father Chang has taught theology in Chinese for the past half dozen years, directed graduate degree programs at the school, and has been heavily involved in accompanying the students. He was elected by the professors and nominated by Jesuit superiors to be president and dean of the Fu Jen school.
Reflecting upon his appointment, he said, “Please pray for me. The challenges are many and great.”
For Father Chang, the spirit of mission availability now means focusing on theological formation for the Chinese-speaking church. He still has some involvement in pastoral ministry at a Taipei parish where he celebrates Mass for children on a regular basis.
“Many priests are reluctant to preach for children, but I find that ministry to be really fun,” he said.
Nonetheless, he realizes that his primary contribution will be preparing priests, sisters and lay leaders who will engage in direct ministry. “Administration was not my primary interest,” Father Chang said, “but I understand the importance of programs and supporting others, so that the entire People of God may more fully participate in the church’s mission.”
The Jesuit still has a fond place in his heart for Hawaii, even if the greater needs of the church have called him elsewhere. It is a reality his mother has accepted.
Said Linda Mae Chang, “From the very beginning, each trip that Mary (his sister) and I took to Taiwan, the Chinese Jesuits kept saying, ‘He is needed here.’”
During their last trip, while having dinner with the Jesuits, she asked the question again, “Where is Jeffrey going next?” They again responded, “He is needed here.”
