Andrew Francis (bishop)
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Andrew Francis (29 November 1946 – 6 June 2017) was the
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
i
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
prelate who served as the Bishop of Multan from 2000 to 2014.


Biography

He was born in Adah,
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
on 29 November 1946. He was educated at St. Mary’s Convent school, Adah and
St Francis High School, Lahore St. Francis High School, formerly known as Government St. Francis High School is a private Catholic school for boys, located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. In spite of its name as a ''high school'', the school delivers a primary and high school edu ...
. He received his religious training at the
Christ the King Seminary The Christ the King Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, Karachi, Pakistan; located in adjacent to the Portiuncula Friary. In its early years most of the faculty were provided by the Franciscans. It has been described ...
in
Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...
. On 10 January 1972, he was ordained a
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
of the Archdiocese of Lahore. He has been rector of
Sacred Heart Cathedral, Lahore Sacred Heart Cathedral () is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore, located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Built at the behest of bishop Godefroid Pelckmans (Bishop of Lahore, 1893-1904) with Belgian aid and materials, the cathedral w ...
in 1986 and later Parish Priest of
St. Anthony's Church, Lahore St. Anthony's Church, Lahore, located 270 kilometers southeast of Islamabad is one of the oldest churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore in Pakistan. History The church was consecrated in 1899. It was formerly called the "Railway ...
, until his ordination as bishop in February 2000. Francis also served as the editor-in-chief of Pakistan's oldest catholic fortnightly the ''
Catholic Naqib The ''Catholic Naqib'' () is the oldest Urdu-language Catholic magazine, founded in Lahore, Pakistan in 1929 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore. It was originally published by Lahore Press Club, ...
''. On 3 December 1999 he was appointed Bishop of Multan in Pakistan. He was ordained as bishop on 26 February 2000. It was later revealed that a civil court had issued a stay order on the ordination of the Bishop-elect, but he was ordained before the court order arrived. Archbishop Alessandro D'Errico, apostolic nuncio to Pakistan, and Bishop Anthony Lobo of Islamabad-Rawalpindi presided at the ordination of Bishop Francis at a private chapel of the Lahore archbishop's house. Bishop Francis was the chairman of the National Commission for Inter-religious Dialogue and Ecumenism, National Commission of Sacred Liturgy and National Commission of Catholic Urdu Literature. Also he was a member of
Pontifical Council A pontifical council was a mid-sized department or dicastery of the Roman Curia, the central organization responsible for assisting the Pope in the governance and oversight of the Catholic Church. Such a council had a cardinal or archbishop a ...
for Inter-religious Dialogue - Rome, International Commission for English in the Liturgy, USA and the Minority Committee of the
Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, con ...
. In 2014 Francis was injured in a car accident and became a wheelchair user. On 13 June 2014
Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
accepted the resignation of Bishop Andrew Francis in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law, and appointed Benny Travas of Karachi as
Apostolic Administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...
. Bishop Andrew died on 6 June 2017, aged 70.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Andrew 1944 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Pakistan 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Pakistan Roman Catholic bishops of Multan