Joseph Arshad

His Excellency
Joseph Arshad
Bishop of Faisalabad

Bishop Joseph Arshad
Church Roman Catholic
See Roman Catholic Diocese of Faisalabad
In office 2013
Predecessor Joseph Coutts
Orders
Ordination November 1, 1991
Consecration November 1, 2013[1]
by Fernando Cardinal Filoni
Rank Bishop
Personal details
Born (1964-08-25) August 25, 1964
Lahore, Pakistan
Nationality Pakistani
Previous post Councillor at the Apostolic Nunciature in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Joseph Arshad is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Faisalabad in Pakistan.

Arshad was born on August 25, 1964 in Lahore. After completing school, he began his priestly education at St. Mary's Minor Seminary, Lahore. He continued his studies at Christ the King Seminary in Karachi. After his ordination on November 1, 1991, he was appointed Parochial Vicar of St. Joseph ‘s Church and also given charge of St. Peter's School in Gujranwala. For a while he also studied journalism.[2]

In 1995, he went to Rome for Canon Law studies at the Pontifical Urban University and then underwent training as a Vatican diplomat at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.

His doctoral Dissertation “The responsibility of a diocesan bishop in defending the unity of the universal Church according to c. 392” was published by the Urbaniana University Press in 1999.[3]

He was the first Pakistani priest to join the Vatican diplomatic service.[4] From 1999 to 2002 he served at the Apostolic Nunciature in Malta. From then until 2010, he served at the Apostolic Nunciatures in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Madagascar.

As of July 2013 he was a councillor at the Apostolic Nunciature in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pope Francis on July 3, 2013 appointed Fr. Arshad as the bishop of the Faisalabad Diocese. The Diocese has an area of 35,300sqm and a population of 38,265,000, of whom 150,000 are Catholics with 42 priests.[5]

After being ordained as bishop of Faisalabad on November 1, Bishop Joseph Arshad performed his first mass in St. Joseph's Church, Lahore on 3 November 2013. He completed his schooling from St Joseph’s High School in the Parish.[6]

Bishop Arshad, head of the Commission for Social Communications, attended the 15th Conference of Radio Veritas Asia listeners held on 21 September 2015 at Loyola Hall in Lahore. He invited the participants to build peace, tolerance and brotherhood in society via the radio.[7]

On 12 November 2016, Arshad was appointed as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, which was vacant since the death of Bishop Rufin Anthony, who died on October, 17, 2016.[8]

References

  1. Catholic Hierarchy accessed 1 November 2013
  2. Aid to the Church in Need December 2, 2014
  3. Google accessed 2 November 2013
  4. The Express Tribune, October 31, 2013
  5. Vatican Radio July 3, 2013
  6. Daily Times, November 4, 2013
  7. AsiaNews 24 September 2015
  8. Vatican Radio 12 November 2016


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