Although no Indian is among the 21 new cardinals named by Pope Francis on July 9, the country has a link with one of two Asians.
Bishop Sebastian Francis Mechery of Penang is the new cardinal from Malaysia. The other Asian is Jesuit Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan of Hong Kong.
Bishop Mechery was born on November 11, 1951, in Johor Bahru, which was then part of the Federation of Malaya. His grandparents had emigrated to Malaya in the 1890s from Ollur in Thrissur district, Kerala.