Thrissur: Bishop Sebastian Francis of Penang in Malaysia says his maiden visit to India’s Trichur archdiocese would help him rediscover his ancestral roots.
Bishop Francis, who was given a rousing welcome in the Kerala archdiocese, told reporters that his grandparents had emigrated to Malaysia (then Malaya) in 1890s when the British ruled the two countries. The bishop’s family belonged to the Mechery family of Ollur in Thrissur (formerly Trichur) district.
The 65-year-old prelate said he knew some of his maternal relatives live in Chennai, capital of neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, but had little contact with them.
Bishop Francis’ family in Malaysia comprises five brothers and four sisters, who are now full-fledged Malaysian citizens. They have never visited India until now since they had not links with their Indian relatives.
He was born November 11, 1951, in Johor Bahru, which was then a part of the Federation of Malaya. In 1967, he joined St. Francis Xavier’s Minor Seminary in Singapore. Three years later he enrolled in the College General, a major seminary in Penang, where he studied theology. He was ordained a priest for Malacca-Johor diocese on July 28, 1977.
The young priest obtained a licentiate in Dogmatic Theology from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome and a degree in Justice and Peace from Maryknoll School of Theology in New York, in 1991. In 2003, he was appointed the vicar general of Malacca-Johor diocese, a position he held until his appointment as the bishop of Penang in 2012.