At 72, he is president of the Episcopal Conference that also includes Singapore and Brunei. He will be the second Malaysian in the College of Cardinals (but first among the electors). His message to the diocese: “Let’s build together the Kingdom of God made of joy, mercy and hope.” He brings to the College of Cardinals the theme of the relationship between religions and ethnic groups in Southeast Asia.
Penang () – A priest who grew up in Malaysia in a family of Indian immigrants. And that he could for the first time lead this dynamic Church of Southeast Asia to a future Conclave. This is the profile of Monsignor Sebastian Francis, Bishop of Penang, whom Pope Francis named yesterday at the Angelus among the 21 new cardinals who will receive the purple at the Consistory on September 30.
He was born in 1951 in the city of Johor Bahru, in southern Malaysia, and since July 2012 he has been Bishop of Penang, in the north of the country, where he previously taught dogmatic theology at the seminary. Since January 2017 he has been president of the Episcopal Conference that brings together the bishops of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. A member of the Central Committee of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), he is also a highly esteemed figure in his country’s civil society: he was vice president of the local interreligious council and in 2016 received the Darjah Setia award from the governor of Penang. Pangkuan Negeri, which carries the title of datuknickname with which Malaysians address an important personality.
Francis is the second prelate to be named a cardinal in the history of the Malaysian Catholic Church, but he will be the first to join the ranks of cardinal electors: in fact, before him, in 2016 Pope Francis had awarded him the purple to the then archbishop emeritus of Kuala Lumpur Anthony Soter Fernandez, who later died in 2020. On that occasion, however, Fernández had been named cardinal at the age of 84, so he would not have entered an eventual Conclave. Likewise, as part of the Episcopal Conference that brings together Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Pope Francis had also appointed Cardinal Cornelius Sim, Apostolic Vicar of Brunei, who also died in 2021 at the age of 70.
These two figures – along with William Goh, Archbishop of Singapore, cardinal since last year – were mentioned by the new cardinal in his message to his diocese upon learning of the appointment. “I am glad to follow in the footsteps of Cardinals Soter Fernández (Malaysia), Cornelius Sim (Brunei) and William Goh (Singapore),” he wrote. “Together with them and with the Church in Asia, we give a common witness to the universality of Catholic Church and of the apostolic continuity of the mission that the Risen Christ entrusted to Saint Peter, the Apostles and their successors.May this mission, carried out above all by the Holy Spirit, continue in Malaysia, in Asia and beyond. And may he do it through many of the laity, religious and clergy who are all disciples and workers in God’s vineyard and garden, together with the multitudes of the People of God in all parts of the world. Kingdom of God, made of joy, mercy and hope”, he concluded.
The appointment of Card. Sebastian Francis was also welcomed with joy in India, the land from which the new cardinal’s grandparents emigrated to Malaysia in 1890. His family belonged to the Mecherys of Ollur, Thrissur district. The Archbishop of Penang has five brothers and four sisters, all of whom are now Malay citizens; but some of his relatives still live in Chennai, the capital of the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. The interest of the card. Francis for his Indian roots was revived during the XI Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, which was held in Colombo (Sri Lanka) in 2017, where he met with many Indian prelates and delegates, including Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Thrissur, current president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CBCI). On that occasion, he invited him to visit his hometown in Kerala and organized a grand reception for him at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. There Francis told that his mother still cooked Kerala dishes, and that his father ran an Indian restaurant called “Kera” (coconut). In Kuala Lampur, the capital of Malaysia, the bishop’s brother still runs a restaurant with the same name.
To the question what asked him today about the importance of his migrant backgrounds, the newly appointed cardinal responded: “Immigrants do all the drudgery that natives tend to ignore and help the economies of developed and developing countries. They also bring with them treasures cultural and spiritual that give new dynamism to many countries. May God bless the migrants and their fruitful work”.
