Sin Chew Daily, Oct 7, 2014, Pg A5

Reverend Father Julian Leow Beng Kim takes over as archbishop of Kuala Lumpur as the first Chinese archbishop. He takes over from Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam witnessed by more than 10,000 people as the fourth archbishop.

Witnessed by more than 10,000 people

The ordination and installation ceremony was held at 10am in Holy Family Church in Kajang, presided by Apostolic Nuncio to Malaysia Archbishop Joseph Marino. Kuching archbishop John Ha was the main consecrator while Archbishop Emeritus Soter Fernandez and Pakiam were the two co-consecrators.

Despite the ordination and installation ceremony started at 10am, many Catholics turned up at 7.30am to witness the historic moment. This included foreign dignitaries, trans-religious council representatives, bishops, missionary staff and church members in nearby areas.

The ceremony was also held in a live telecast via online for people throughout the world to witness the historic moment.

Tan Sri Pakiam retired on 6 December. Father Leow, 50, was appointed as the archbishop of Kuala Lumpur on 3 July.

Born in Seremban, Leow studied in St Paul’s Institution for his primary and secondary education. He obtained a degree in building from the University of New South Wales in 1989 and studied theology at College General Major Seminary, Penang in 1994. He was ordained a priest on April 20, 2002 at the Church of the Visitation, Seremban. Five years later he was in Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome to study history and cultural patrimony of the Church.

After gaining a degree, he returned to Malaysia as professor and trainer for College General Major Seminary in Penang until he is appointed as Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur.

Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur covers Catholic churches in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Seremban, Pahang and Terengganu. Currently, the area has a total of 40 districts and churches with 180,000 Catholics.

Urge people to respect and cooperate with each other, a new chapter for the country

Leow points out that Malaysia is created by forefathers of different faiths. Now, Malaysians are at crossroad. He hopes the consensus reached is able to extend. People and leaders should make a correct decision in difficult times.

He is of the view that people need to write a new chapter for the country. It covers mutual respect, inter-dependence and cooperation.

He says writing a new chapter is not meant to compete with each other for No 1, to see who is better or more successful but to balance a country’s strength through treating the weak and the vulnerable.

In his speech, Leow promises that he devotes himself to restore and build Malaysia under people’s support.

He points out that he would be paying attention to four groups – those who have left church, migrant and foreigners who have left home to pursue better lives, teenagers, the silent, those who are neglected and those being suppressed.

He opines that church must come forward to speak for these groups of people and care for the most vulnerable group.

Original Source: 廖炳堅接任隆總主教‧晉牧典禮互聯網直播