“From day one, I have said this opportunity is given by God. Because if you analyse it rationally, you may not want to do this job – there are a lot of difficulties, sacrifices that may need to be made. But as God called upon me – to say that I am needed to continue serving Hong Kong society at this moment – I made my response.”

[...]

“I’ve said in public that regardless of their political affiliations, as long as that individual has the ability and is willing to serve, and his philosophy is aligned with mine, then I would be more than happy to invite him or her to join the politically appointed team.”

Newly elected Carrie Lam reiterates that God called upon her to run, as she begins forming cabinet, Hong Kong Free Press, 30 March 2017

“Working in the SAR government [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China], when you insist on doing the work of righteousness, you’ll often be given a hard time.”

[...]

“Some said that the eighth blessing applies very well to me – it says, ‘blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ – there is already a place reserved for me in heaven.”

Chief Sec. Carrie Lam says there is a place reserved for her in heaven, Hong Kong Free Press, 2 November 2015

“Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese,” a senior Vatican official has said.

Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, praised the Communist state as “extraordinary”, saying: “You do not have shantytowns, you do not have drugs, young people do not take drugs”. Instead, there is a “positive national conscience”.

The bishop told the Spanish-language edition of Vatican Insider that in China “the economy does not dominate politics, as happens in the United States, something Americans themselves would say.”

Bishop Sánchez Sorondo said that China was implementing Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ better than many other countries and praised it for defending Paris Climate Accord. “In that, it is assuming a moral leadership that others have abandoned”, he added.

[...]

As part of the diplomacy efforts, Bishop Sánchez Sorondo visited the country. “What I found was an extraordinary China,” he said. “What people don’t realise is that the central value in China is work, work, work. There’s no other way, fundamentally it is like St Paul said: he who doesn’t work, doesn’t eat.”

‘China is the best implementer of Catholic social doctrine,’ says Vatican bishop, Catholic Herald, 6 February 2018

“I would like to go to Beijing, I love China.” 

Full text of Pope Francis' in-flight press conference from Japan, Catholic News Agency, 26 November 2019