The first and only Thai prelate ever to receive the red hat

Michael Michai Cardinal Kitbunchu

Function: Archbishop of Bangkok, Thailand

Title: Cardinal Priest of S Lorenzo in Panisperna

Birthdate: Jan 25, 1929	Country: Thailand

Elevated: Feb 02, 1983	More information: www.catholic-hierarchy.org

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The first and only Thai prelate ever to receive the red hat
Jun 17, 2005
Our sixty-first red-hat we feature, in alphabetical order is Cardinal Michael Michai Kitbunchu, the Archbishop of Bangkok for over a quarter of a century. He was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope John Paul II in the Consistory of February 2, 1983.

(Daily Catholic, June 4-6, 1999) The Archbishop of Bangkok in Thailand is Cardinal Michael Michai Kitbunchu who was born on the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, January 25 in 1929 in Samphran, Thailand in the archdiocese that he would ultimately head.

He studied for the priesthood at Siracha in Thailand and attained a degree in both Theology and Philosophy in Rome at the Urban Pontifical College. It was in the eternal city that he was ordained on December 20, 1959.

After further studies he returned to Bangkok where he was appointed consultant for the Archdiocese. In the mid sixties he became Rector of the metropolitan Seminary in Bangkok which he held until 1972 when Pope Paul VI named him not only bishop, but Archbishop of Bangkok on December 18, 1972. He was installed that following summer on June 3, 1973 and has remained in this post for twenty six years.

Ten years after his appointment as Archbishop, he became Thailand's first ever cardinal when Pope John Paul II included him in his second Consistory on February 2, 1983 bestowing on Cardinal Kitbunchu the red-hat and the titular church of St. Laurence in Panisperna.

He still serves membership in the Office of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples while residing at Assumption Cathedral on 51 Oriental Avenue in Bangkok 10500, Thailand.

His most recent international exposure occurred last August when he hosted the week-long World Assembly of Families which is a major challenge for Catholics in southeast Asia for Thailand's Catholic population is in the vast minority with only 4% of the sixty million Thais claiming fidelity to Rome.

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CARDINALS

in alphabetical order

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