Archbishop Pakiam Remains In Office

Archbishop Emeritus Pakiam will continue to be in office and will now serve as the Administrator of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur.

The college of consultors elected Archbishop Emeritus Murphy Pakiam as the Administrator of the Archdiocese at their meeting announced by Rev. Fr. Jestus Pereira, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese.

In his short press statement, Rev. Fr. Jestus explained that Archbishop Emeritus Pakiam will serve in this new capacity for the purposes of ‘maintaining the operations of the Archdiocese and serving the needs of the Catholic faithful until the appointment of the 4th Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur’.

Fr Jestus Pereira
Archbishop Emeritus Pakiam attained the age of 75 on 6 December 2013 and is obliged under Canon Law to present his resignation from office to the Holy Father, Pope Francis.

Canon Law states that upon a vacancy of a diocese, it devolves upon the college of consultors of the local diocese to designate a diocesan administrator.

Canon Law also states that the college of consultors must elect a diocesan administrator, namely the one who is to govern the diocese temporarily, within eight days from receiving notice of the vacancy.

In the due process of Canon Law, the Holy Father accepted the resignation presented by His Grace Archbishop Emeritus Murphy Pakiam on 13 December 2013 premised on the fact that His Grace has reached the age limit.

There is nothing to suggest that the acceptance is ‘prompt’ let alone premised on ‘the Vatican’s disappointment with his handling of the Allah issue’.

His Grace is in the forefront of defending the Church’s right to use the word ‘Allah’ in the Bahasa Malaysia edition of the Herald newspaper. The action against the Government and the pending leave application to the Federal Court against the Court of Appeal decision disallowing the right to use the word ‘Allah’ was instituted by Archbishop Pakiam.

His Grace’s previous actions against the government include the legal action to challenge the government’s attempt to acquire part of the St Thomas School land in Kuantan. The government in that instance had agreed to withdraw the proposed acquisition.

His Grace had vehemently pursued and sought an apology from the magazine ‘Al Islam and the journalist who entered a church and desecrated the Holy Communion.

His Grace, appointed in 2003 as the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, has made great strides in the development of the Catholic Church and more importantly has been passionately advocating the need for greater dialogue and inter religious relationship between all religious communities in Malaysia.

He has been a great asset to the Catholic Church and has worked untiringly to shepherd his people.

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