The Dominican friars of the convents "Saint Albert the Great" in Hong Kong and "Santo Domingo" in Macao have celebrated the day of St. Thomas Aquinas with a Public Lecture on "Wisdom in St. Thomas Aquinas". Fr. Edmond Eh Kim Chew, OP. was The speaker. He is a Professor at the University of Macao and the University of San José.

The first conference of this kind in Hong Kong was organized by the Dominican students friars of the Province with their Master Fray José Salas, OP, on January 27. Among the assistants were His Cardinal Eminence John Tong Hon, and Auxiliary Bishop Ha, the Dominican Friars, superiors of some religious houses, seminarians, religious and laity. It culminated with a "barbecue" inside the perimeter of Rosaryhill field at the back of the image of the Virgin of Fatima.

The conference in Macau took place in the Seminary Auditorium of the Faculty of ecclesiastical studies of the University of San José. It was jointly organized by the Center of Studies of the Province under the direction of Fray Javier González Izquierdo, Master of Students in Macau; Moderator of the Institutional Studies Center of the Province and Teacher in this faculty.

There was a good attendance among those among them the student brothers of the Province, the Provincials of the Asia Pacific Region, religious and professors of philosophy and theology. After the conference, the solemn Mass was presided by Mons. Stephen Lee Bun-sang, Bishop of Macao and a number of concelebrants: Fr. Gerard Timoner, OP the assistant to de Master of the Order for the Asia Pacific; Fr. Vivian Boland, OP. Assistant for Formation and community life; The Provincials of Asia Pacific: Fr. Bonifacio Solís, OP. (Our Lady of the Rosary); Fr. Antony Walsh, OP (Australia); Fr. Napoleon Sipalay (Philippines); representing the Vicariate in Japan of the Province of Canada Fr. Kanno Kota, OP; and the Vice-Provincials Fr. Vincent Li, OP (Taiwan) and Fr. Pascal Paulus, OP (Pakistan).

Fr. Edmond says: “This lecture is an attempt to trace the evolution of the concept of wisdom as found in the thought of Aristotle and Aquinas. This is done in terms of how the Greek concept of wisdom as an intellectual virtue is understood and used to express the Christian concept of wisdom as a gift of the Holy Spirit. The main aim is to understand how Aquinas derived the concept of wisdom from Aristotle’s philosophy and developed it in his theology. The study is based on Book 6 of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Question 45 of the second part of the second part of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. It concluded with a reflection on the relationship between wisdom and happiness”.