1949年至1997年天主教會與英國依殖民地政策緊密合作，在香港提供服務，在服務中去傳播福音。這時期的政教關係是「雇主和包商」（proprietor vs contractor）的和諧工作關係。始自1985年，香港依中英聯合聲明，準備於1997年回歸中國成為特別行政區。香港天主教徒相信民主制度是維護宗教自由的方法，所以天主教會在過度期（1985∼1997）首次有參政的意願。同時中國天主教會於1980年後也有限度的開放。香港天主教會承擔了教會橋梁的角色，協助它的復甦。因此它產生政教關係的典範轉移（paradigm shift）：由與港英的和諧關係，演變成1997年後與特區政府、北京政府、和梵蒂岡教廷的複雜而緊張的四邊關係。其緊張程度依北京的政治氣候、宗教政策、和中梵關係的走勢而定。由於先有先知性領袖陳日君主教（2006年升樞機主教）為代表的對抗性策略，習近平逐步收緊對香港自由的限制，雙邊的關係在2019年跌到谷底，直到耶穌會出身的周守仁主教開始領導香港教會才出現轉機，這段期間香港天主教政教關係典範的變遷，更形多姿多彩。

From 1949 to 1997, the Hong Kong Catholic Church and the British rulers of Hong Kong had established a close working relationship when the Church provided the required service to the society all the while to evangelize the people. In this period, the church and the state had established a harmonious working relationship in the model of the “proprietor vs contractor”. In 1985, when the Sino-British announced that in 1997, Hong Kong would become the Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China, Hong Kong Catholics believed that a democratic system would be the means to preserve religious freedom under the Communist rule. Therefore, the desire of political involvement among HK Catholics began to prevail in the transitional period (1985~1997) before the Chinese rule on Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in the Mainland China began to revive to a certain degree after the destruction in Mao’s Era. HK Catholic played the role in the bridging endeavor to assist the revival of the Chinese Church. Thus, since 1997, the paradigm of the church-state relations of Hong Kong Catholic with the local government, with Beijing and with the Vatican began to shift from harmonious relations to complicated and confrontational relations. Due to the confrontational strategy that was represented by the prophetic leader, Bishop Joseph Zen Zi-kiun (new position as Cardinal in 2006), Xi Jinping began to gradually tighten Hong Kong’s religious freedom. This caused their relations to be at the worst in 2019. However, the church-state relations became better and reached a turning point when Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-Yen appeared, who was from the Jesuit order. As such, during this period, the development of the Church-state relationship in HKSAR has been experiencing dramatic changes with the shift of paradigms.