Subject: VI: Pope Appoints Chinese Malaysian Priest As New Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur

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Date: 3 Jul., 2014 Subject: VI: Pope appoints Chinese Malaysian priest as new archbishop of Kuala Lumpur

Vatican Insider www.vaticaninsider.com 07/ 3/2014

Pope appoints Chinese Malaysian priest as new archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Pope Francis has appointed, for the first time, a Chinese Malaysian priest as archbishop of Kuala Lumpur

GERARD O'CONNELL ROME

Pope Francis has appointed a 50-year old Chinese Malaysian priest, Julian Leow Beng Kim, as the new archbishop of Kuala Lumpur.

The announcement was made simultaneously in the Vatican and Kuala Lumpur, July 3. Archbishop Joseph Marino, the papal nuncio, broke the news at the archbishop’s residence in the federal capital.

“I accepted the position in obedience, and after prayer," Bishop-elect Leow told the media.

He emphasized the importance of dialogue with the other religions and said he "is looking forward to having inter-religious dialogues and fostering closer ties with Malaysians of various races and faiths", The Star reported.

"Once dialogue is shut out, there will be a lot of misinterpretation. Inter-religious dialogue is important for the whole country and we will find unity in diversity," The Star reported him as saying.

“Dialogue is important, not only for me but the whole country, where we are able to sit down together, be passionate about our own faith, and respect each other" the Sundaily quoted him as saying.

He wisely refused to comment on the controversial question regarding the use of the

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“Let us make Malaysia a wonderful place to live and work, a diversity of ethnic, culture and religion, and let this bind us as unity is our diversity," he said, according to MSN Malaysia News.

Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, has a population of 30.2 million people, made up of three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and peoples of the Asian sub- continent. Most of the country’s 985,000 Catholics are of Chinese or Indian origin, and up to now the archbishops of Kuala Lumpur (KL) have been of Indian origin.

Father Leow, who worked for six years in the construction industry before going onto study for the priesthood, is the first Chinese Malaysian to be appointed to lead the archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur (KL). He succeeds Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, whose resignation the Pope accepted on 13 December 2013 for reasons of age.

The bishop-elect becomes the spiritual leader of the 243,865 Catholics in this city of 1.7 million people. He becomes the spiritual father to the archdiocese’s 57 priests, 14 men (non-priest) religious and 98 professed women religious.

It is unusual to appoint a priest as archbishop; the normal path is for the archbishop to be chosen from among the existing bishops. Pope Francis, however, has made clear that in choices such as this, it is important to find the right man, even if he is not yet a bishop, and that is what happened here.

Fr Julian Leow was born in Seremban on 3 January 1964. After completing his elementary and secondary school studies in St Paul’s Mission School he went to New South Wales University in Australia (1983-88), where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Building.

After university he worked for six years as site coordinator of different constructions in Sydney, Singapore, Johor and Kuala Lumpur, before going on to study for the priesthood at the College General Major Seminary in Penang.

Ordained priest for the archdiocese of KL on 20 April 2002, he served as assistant priest at Visitation Parish in Seremban. Two years later, he went to Taiwan for six months to study Mandarin. At the end of that year he was assigned as parish priest of

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Holy Family parish in Kajang, where he remained until 2007 when his archbishop sent him to Rome to study Church history at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

After gaining his degree in Church history, he returned to Malaysia in 2010 and was appointed professor and formator at the College General Major Seminary in Penang, a post he held until his nomination by Pope Francis as the fourth archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, one of the nine dioceses in this country.

When asked at the press conference if he sees his new position as a challenge, the bishop elect had this to say, according to Sundaily: “I would say yes and no, as this can be looked upon as an opportunity in a challenge. It is like a shoemaker entering a place where everyone does not wear shoes. He can either look at it as an opportunity for his shoes to sell, or he could see it as a challenge."