Cardinal Joseph Zen, Hong Kong’s outspoken former bishop, fears Catholic schools may one day have to remove religious references from its names after the Catholic diocese advised its schools to promote national security education to students.

The city’s Catholic diocese no longer has “real control” over its schools, Zen said on an online radio show on Thursday. “We are both heartbroken and nervous, because we simply can’t do anything about this,” he said.

He feared that schools might even have to remove the word “Catholic” from its official name.

“There may come a time where we have to say: ‘sorry, we’re not the ones in charge, it’s the school board members who are.’ This day might come soon,” Zen said.

There are around 250 education institutions with Catholic backgrounds, according to official figures from the diocese. Almost half of them are run by the church, while others are run by charities such as Caritas.

The diocese last month sent a letter advising its schools to enhance students' awareness of the national security law, which bans secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. It also said schools should foster the correct sense of national identity and teach students to respect the national anthem and emblem.

Article 9 and 10 of the legislation stipulates that the government has to take necessary measures to strengthen public communication, guidance and supervision of the regulation, and promote national security education in schools and universities respectively.

Since the implementation of the national security law on June 30, Zen noted that Hongkongers' freedoms were slowly being eroded.

“If there is no religious freedom in a place, there is no freedom at all,” he said.

Churches in mainland China are under constant surveillance by Chinese authorities, with state-approved churches forced to preach patriotic sermons and sing pro-Communist songs. Beijing has for years cracked down on underground churches that have refused to join the government-sanctioned religious associations and arrested its church leaders.

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