Vira Arpondratana is the new Archbishop of Bangkok

The 69-year-old bishop of Chiang Mai was appointed by Pope Francis as successor to Card. Kriengsak Kovithavanij who had left the leadership of the archdiocese in June. A native of Samsaen, appointed bishop in 2009 by Benedict XVI, he has been leading the Catholic community in the Thai capital as apostolic administrator in recent months.

Bangkok (AsiaNews) - Bishop Francis Xavier Vira Arpondratana, 69, is the new archbishop of Bangkok.

Pope Francis appointed him today as successor to Card. Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij, whose resignation had already been accepted in June due to age limit, upon reaching the age of 75, as prescribed by the Code of Canon Law.

Vira Arpondratana, until now Bishop of Chiang Mai, had already been provisionally entrusted with the leadership of the Catholic community in the Thai capital as Apostolic Administrator.

Announcing the appointment today at the same time as the Vatican Press Office, the Apostolic Nunciature in Bangkok invited people to join ‘the Church of Thailand in prayer for Archbishop Francis Xavier Vira Arpondratana and those under his pastoral care’.

Archbishop Francis Xavier Vira Arpondratana succeeds the only two cardinals in the history of Thailand: before Kovithavanij, the Church in Bangkok was gudated by Card. Michael Michai Kitbunchu, now 95, whose mandate lasted from 1972 to 2009.

Kitbunchu ordained both Kovithavanij and the newly ordained archbishop, who became a priest on 7 June 1981 at the age of 25. The archdiocese of Bangkok - erected as an apostolic vicariate of Siam in 1662 - has more than 122,000 faithful, 59 parishes, and a clergy of about 240 priests, in a context where the vast majority of the population is Buddhist.

Archbishop Francis Xavier Vira Arpondratana was born on 3 October 1955 in Samsaen, one of the oldest districts of Bangkok. He completed his school and priestly training in Thailand.

From 1981 to 1985, he was vice-rector of the St Joseph Minor Seminary in Sampran. He was then sent to Rome for further pastoral and catechetical studies at the Pontifical Salesian University from 1985 to 1988, where he obtained a Licentiate in youth pastoral and catechesis. Since 1988, he has been the director of the diocesan catechetical centre in Bangkok.

From 1992, he was also secretary of the Education Commission of the Bishops' Conference of Thailand.

On 10 February 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of Chiang Mai, in the mountainous northern part of the country. He was ordained bishop on 1 May 2009 at the Sacred Heart Cathedral.

In recent years, he has led the local Catholic community of about 55,000 faithful. He has been dean of the catechetical faculty and professor at the Lux Mundi major seminary in Sampran since 2000.