Dhaka (AsiaNews) - More than a thousand lay Catholics, 100 nuns , 30 priests and 11 bishops from all the dioceses of Bangladesh, participated in the inaugural Mass of Msgr. George Kocherry , the new Apostolic Nuncio . The function took place yesterday in Dhaka. Archbishop Patrick D' Rozario welcomed the new papal representative to the country expressing his " full support of the whole Church of Bangladesh ."
Msgr. Kocherry, 68, is Indian and arrived in the country on 10 September . Before the ceremony he met President Abdul Hamid . During the liturgy , he hailed the community : "I am very happy that I came to Bangladesh. I will work together for the welfare of all and for humanity."
Msgr. Kocherry was born on 4 February 1945 in Changanassery (Kerala) . He left India in 1967 to study philosophy and theology in Rome, where he took a doctorate in Canon Law . In 1974 he was ordained a priest. He has served as secretary in the nunciatures of South Korea , Costa Rica, Nigeria, West Indies , Thailand , Singapore, Switzerland and Australia.
In 2000 he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana and elevated to archbishop. He served for eight years n the African country: in 2008 he was moved to the Nunciature in Zimbabwe. He came to Bangladesh to take the place of the American Archbishop Msgr. Joseph Marino , the Vatican called him to head the first diplomatic mission in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur , which was created earlier this year.
