Julian Leow Beng Kim | |
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Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei | |
Church | Roman Catholic Church |
Archdiocese | Kuala Lumpur |
Appointed | 3 July 2014 |
Installed | 6 October 2014 |
Predecessor | Murphy Pakiam |
Orders | |
Ordination | 20 April 2002 by Anthony Soter Fernandez |
Consecration | 6 October 2014 by John Ha Tiong Hock, Anthony Soter Fernandez and Murphy Pakiam |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Alma mater | |
Motto | Integrity and Tenderness |
Styles of Julian Leow Beng Kim | |
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Reference style | |
Spoken style | Your Excellency |
Religious style | Archbishop |
Julian Leow Beng Kim | |
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Traditional Chinese | 廖 炳 堅 |
Hanyu Pinyin | Liào Bǐngjiān |
Jyutping | Liu6 Bing2 Gin1 |
Hokkien POJ | Liāu Péng-kian |
Tâi-lô | Liāu Píng-kian |
Julian Leow Beng Kim (born 3 January 1964) is a Malaysian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been serving as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur since 2014. [1] He also serves as president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia,Singapore and Brunei.
Leow was born on 3 January 1964,in Seremban,Negeri Sembilan to an ethnic Malaysian Chinese family of Cantonese descent. He obtained a Bachelor of Building from the University of New South Wales in Sydney,Australia in the year 1989. He then studied at College General,Penang from 1994 to 2001. He was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur on 20 April 2002,by Most Rev Anthony Soter Fernandez (Later,Cardinal). [2]
Leow has also obtained a licentiate in Church history from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome,Italy. He also served as the dean of studies and formator at College General,Penang,from 2009 until his appointment as the archbishop of Kuala Lumpur. [3]
On 3 July 2014,Pope Francis appointed Leow as the 4th archbishop of Kuala Lumpur. [4] He succeeds Archbishop Emeritus Murphy Pakiam,whose resignation was accepted by the Pope on 13 December 2013 upon the reaching the age limit of 75 according to the Canon Law. [5]
Leow was consecrated and installed archbishop on 6 October 2014,in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio to Malaysia,Archbishop Joseph Marino at the Church of the Holy Family in Kajang,Selangor. [6] Some 12,000 came from around the country to witness the consecration. [6] His principal consecrator was the Archbishop of Kuching,Most Rev. Dato' John Ha Tiong Hock. His co-consecrators were Archbishop Emeritus Murphy Pakiam and Archbishop Emeritus Anthony Soter Fernandez.
The motto for Leow's episcopacy is "Integrity and Tenderness". [7]
Controversy erupted on the day of Leow's ordination to the episcopacy regarding the inclusion of a 'tree of all religions' in his episcopal coat of arms. An article published by conservative Roman Catholic news portal Rorate Caeli [8] reported that a local group of Catholic faithful had been deeply scandalized by the symbol,which could be suggestive of the heresy of indifferentism.
The Catholic Church in Malaysia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church,under the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome. The apostolic nuncio to Malaysia is currently Archbishop Wojciech Załuski,who was appointed on 22 September 2020;The current resident ambassador of Malaysia to the Holy See is Hendy anak Assan.
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The College General is a Catholic interdiocesan seminary located at Tanjong Bungah in George Town,Penang,Malaysia. The college's foundation can be traced back to the 1665 establishment of the Seminary of Saint Joseph in Ayuthia which was then the capital of Siam.
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Malaysia. It was erected as the Diocese of Kuala Lumpur by Pope Pius XII on 25 February 1955,and was elevated to the rank of a Metropolitan Archdiocese on 18 December 1972,with the suffragan sees of Malacca-Johor and Penang. It also administers the capital city of Malaysia,Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur as well as the federal administrative centre of Putrajaya and the urbanised states of Selangor and Negeri Sembilan in the central region as well as Pahang and Terengganu on the East Coast. The archdiocese's Mother Church and thus,seat of its Archbishop,is St. John's Cathedral. It was one of the three Roman Catholic archdioceses in Malaysia,with the ecclesiastical archdioceses of Kota Kinabalu and Kuching,both at the Borneo Islands.
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Archbishop Tan Sri Datuk Murphy Nicholas Xavier Pakiam,P.S.M.,P.J.N. was the third metropolitan archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia,from 2003 to 2013. He is styled His Grace The Most Reverend Archbishop Tan Sri Datuk.
The Diocese of Malacca Johore is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in the ecclesiastical province of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. It is located in southern region of Peninsular Malaysia,administering Melaka and Johor states.
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