Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Card. Joseph Coutts of Karachi and transferred Bishop Benny Travas of Multan to take his place as arch-bishop of Pakistan’s largest city.
Cardinal Coutts has headed the southern archdiocese since Jan. 25, 2012. He was appointed chairperson of the Christian Study Centre, a key Christian research centre, in Rawalpindi last month.
Cardinal Coutts was born on July 21, 1945, in Amristar in the Diocese of Jullundur in British India. He was ordained a priest in Lahore on Jan. 9, 1971
Bishop Travas was born in Karachi in 1966 and ordained a priest on Dec. 7, 1990. He served as vicar general of Karachi Arch-diocese and was ordained bishop of Multan on Aug. 15, 2015. He has also served as a professor of canon law at the National Catho-lic Institute of Theology in Kara-chi. Karachi has a population of 20 million. According to the Catholic Church directory 2018, the seaport archdiocese has 182,000 Catholics and 16 parishes. “The son of Karachi has returned,” Father Mario Rodrigues, former rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Karachi, told UCA News.