Ho Lung

Some call him Father, others call him brother, but soon, you might just have to call him Doctor.

Father Richard Ho Lung, head of the charity group Missionaries of the Poor will in November be granted an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus.

The university informed the priest of the honour in a letter sent to his home at Hanover Street in Kingston.

According to the letter, the religious man will be honoured for his work with the poor and his achievements in music. It will be officially bestowed on him on November 10, at the university's graduation ceremony on campus.

Asked how he felt about being honoured by the UWI, Father HoLung chuckled.

"Well I recognise that it's unusual for a priest to be given this honour from a university. I, however, humbly accept it on behalf of the brothers with whom I work and on behalf of the poor for which the work is being done," he said.

Missionaries of the Poor operates homes for the sick and indigent in the Corporate Area and in several other countries across the world.

Father Ho Lung already has a doctorate in Humanities that he gained at Syracuse University in New York. He got that back in 1972.