Pope appoints Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, head of Colombo archdiocese

(June 16, 2009): Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, appointed Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith to head the archdiocese of Colombo in Sri Lanka. He succeeds retiring Archbishop Oswald Gomis.
Archbishop Ranjith was born in Polgahawela, Sri Lanka, on Nov. 15, 1947 and completed his early studies in Colombo and Kandy, before going on to the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, where he obtained a degree in theology.
Pope Paul VI ordained him priest in Rome’s St. Peter's Basilica on June 29, 1975. After various pastoral and academic appointments in Colombo archdiocese, Pope John Paul II named him auxiliary bishop of Colombo in 1991, and appointed him bishop of Ratnapura in 1995.
From 1995-2001, he served as secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka and chairman of the National Commission for Justice, Peace and Human Development. Pope John Paul II brought him to Rome on Oct. 1, 2001, as adjunct secretary at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and on April 29, 2004, appointed him apostolic nuncio to Indonesia and Timor Leste.
Archbishop Ranjith was among the first of the new appointments to the Roman Curia made by Pope Benedict XVI after his election. On Dec. 10, 2005, the pontiff designated him secretary to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a post he has held until now, and which has given him considerable international experience and a wide understanding of the universal Church. The archbishop speaks English, French, German, Italian, Sinhalese and Tamil fluently, and has a fair knowledge of Indonesian and Spanish. He has also studied Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Arabic.
The Archdiocese of Colombo has an area of 3,838 kms. It has a population of 5.7 million people, of which some 700 thousand are Catholic.