New Roman Catholic diocese

It is totally quiet with any changes of the civil administrative subdivisions, so to fill the void here its a good distraction that just yesterday the Vatican has erected a new ecclesial subdivision in Thailand. The diocese of Chiang Mai was split, and a new diocese with the seat in Chiang Rai was erected [Vatican news release].

The new diocese of Chiang Rai (Dioecesis Chiangraiensis, สังฆมณฑลเชียงราย) covers the province Chiang Rai, Phayao, Nan and Phrae, and the district Ngao of Lampang province. As only 0.7% of the population are catholic, it is only responsible for 18062 people which in other countries would be just one parish. Joseph Vuthilert Haelom has been appointed as the first bishop, and will take the post officially when he is ordained and consecrated later this year. The Nativity of Our Lady church in mid-town Chiang Rai has become the cathedral of the new diocese.

It was interesting to observe how fast after the news release the English Wikipedia got a first article about it, and quickly thereafter a German and Polish version popped up as well - there seem to be many more active editors working on Catholicism topics than the country subdivisions. The bishop so far only has a German biography, and for the cathedral there's so far only the Wikidata entry I created. I now have to create new maps for the dioceses in Wikipedia as well, those created in 2005 have a very limited resolution, as at that time SVG maps were not yet supported. The only difficulty will be to correctly add the boundary between the dioceses of Bangkok and Chanthaburi, which don't follow the administrative boundaries in Chachoengsao province. But at least of the new diocese I am already done, as you can see by the map embedded in this posting.

New bishop of Udon Thani appointed

Since I covered the other changes in the Catholic church of Thailand, I now also mention the last of the bishops beyond the retirement age has found a successor. Bishop George Yod Phimphisan (ยอร์ช ยอด พิมพิสาร) was bishop of Udon Thani since 1975. Now aged 76 and therefore before the normal retirement age of 75 according to Canon 401 § 1, he now was the oldest bishop in Thailand and the only one beyond retirement age. The next oldest one is Archbishop Louis Chamniern Santisukniram of Thare and Nonseng at age 67, so this would be last such announcement for at least the next 8 years.

On November 14 2009, the Pope accepted the resignation and appointed Father Joseph Luechai Thatwisai (บาทหลวงดร.ลือชัย ธาตุวิสัย) as his successor. The bishop-elect was born in Phonsung, Udon Thani diocese and prior to his appointment was a member of the clergy in Udon Thani diocese. Sadly the website of the diocese of Udon Thani does not show the coat of arms of the bishop emeritus in any reasonable resolution, so I cannot show a vector drawing of that one this time.

Ecclesiastical heraldry

Maybe it already showed by the previous posts on the various emblems and seals, heraldry and its ability to create a concise picture for the entity in one simple image is quite fascinating to me. At least in English literature, the Thai heraldry is virtually non-covered to my knowledge. However it's not only the civil administrative entities which have such emblems, the Roman Catholic church it has its ecclesiastic heraldry, for example every bishop has his own coat of arms.

I only became aware of this through random working on Wikipedia, when I discovered that the Polish wikipedian Piotr Michał Jaworski has created several bishopric coat of arms, as well as great boilerplates for the various different levels in the Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy. Though I am really not an artist in creating drawings with Inkscape, I have now created one such coat of arms for a Thai bishop based on that boilerplate to present it here.

For several reasons I chose the archbishop-elect Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovitvanit (ฟรังซิสเซเวียร์ เกรียงศักดิ์ โกวิทวาณิช), who will be ordained as new Archbishop of Bangkok on August 16. Due to his promotion, he will get a new coat of arms, so the one he used while he was bishop of Nakhon Sawan will no longer be present in public, so I kind of tried to preserve it. Also, the symbols on the shield are quite easy, so it was not difficult to draw even for me, and a high resolution image on the website of the archdiocese helped even more. Finally and funnily, he is a cousin of my Thai teacher here in Germany, something she mentioned when he was chosen as bishop of Nakhon Sawan. It's my personal proof of the Six degrees of separation, I am only 4 steps away from the Pope.

I could not find the full description of the symbols anymore - I remember I saw it once on the website of the diocese of Nakhon Sawan - but I can remember that the stars in the around the central disc symbolize the 13 civil provinces under the diocese. One reason why he cannot use the same symbolism in his new coat of arms as archbishop, because the archdiocese covers one 8 provinces and another two partially. Except the slogan below, everything outside the central shield is the same for all bishops, and varies with the different levels in hierarchy. I have uploaded the SVG-Version into my coding project, but should also upload it to Wikipedia.

New bishops

When I announced the appointment of a new bishop of Chiang Mai in February, I mentioned that more retirements are to be expected as another three Thai bishops are beyond the normal retirement age of 75. One already happened during my trip, and the second just last Friday.

Most notable is the retirement of Cardinal Michael Kitbunchu (ไมเกิ้ล มีชัย กิจบุญชู), Archbishop of Bangkok. Aged 80 he was not only the oldest of all bishops in Thailand, but also the oldest of all archbishops in the Catholic church. As his successor the Pope named Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovitvanit (ฟรังซิสเซเวียร์ เกรียงศักดิ์ โกวิทวาณิช), the bishop of Nakhon Sawan. Just two years ago he was given that diocese, so he ascended to the highest post in the Thai Catholic church very fast. It also seems like Nakhon Sawan has become the way to higher posts - the predecessor of Bishop Francis Kovitvanit in Nakhon Sawan was Louis Chamniern Santisukniram, who was made archbishop of the other archdiocese in Thailand, Thare and Nonseng centered near Sakon Nakhon.

During my travel the Pope did accept another retirement and appointed the successor of Bishop Lawrence Thienchai Samanchit (ลอเรนซ์ เทียนชัย สมานจิต) of the diocese of Chanthaburi by Silvio Siripong Charatsri (ซิลวีโอ สิริพงษ์ จรัสศรี).

From the official news announcement of the Vatican

The Holy Father Benedict XVI, on April 2, 2009, accepted the renunciation of the pastoral government of the Diocese of Chanthaburi (Thailand) presented by Bishop Lawrence Thienchai Samanchit, in conformity with the Code of Canon Law, canon 401 § 1. The Holy Father appointed as Bishop of Chanthaburi (Thailand), Fr. Silvio Siripong Charatsri, Vicar General of Ratchaburi.

On the website of the diocese one can also find the announcement from the Pope as well as a biography of the new bishop in Thai.

As one can see at a special list by Catholic Hierarchy the last bishops beyond the age limit is the one of Udon Thani. Thus there will be two more such announcements in the near future - one for the new bishop of Nakhon Sawan filling the vacancy just created, and one for the forthcoming retirement in Udon Thani.

New bishop in Chiang Mai

Even though I will continue to focus on the civil administration, an occasional posting on the ecclesiastic subdivisions (i.e. the Roman Catholic dioceses) and their news won't hurt.

On February 10th the Pope has accepted the resignation of Bishop Joseph Sangval Surasarang (ประวัติพระสังฆราชยอแซฟ สังวาลย์ ศุระศรางค์), bishop of the diocese of Chiang Mai. The photo shows the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Chiang Mai, the principal church of the diocese. Francis Xavier Vira Arpondratana (ฟรังซิส เซเวียร์ วีระ อาภรณ์รัตน์) was assigned as the new bishop. The short announcement in the Vatican news read as follows

Appointed Fr. Francis Xavier Vira Arpondratana of the clergy of Bangkok, Thailand, director of the diocesan catechesis centre and secretary of the episcopal commission for catechesis, as bishop of Chiang Mai (area 89,683, population 5,749,882, Catholics 48,927, priests 74, religious 140), Thailand. The bishop-elect was born in Sam Saem, Thailand in 1955 and ordained a priest in 1981. He succeeds Bishop Joseph Sangval Surasarang, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

At the Archdiocese of Bangkok I could also find that news in Thai. A longer English announcement should be forthcoming on Fides.org, the press agency of the Vatican.

Normally bishops can retire once they reach the age of 75, but as Bishop Joseph Sangval Surasarang is just 73 he got an early retirement probably due to poor health - the normal retirement is canon 401§1 while the earlier retirement is covered in 401§2. In fact, there are three bishops in Thailand who already passed the retirement age, including Cardinal Kitbunchu, so there may be further new bishops in the near future. All other dioceses already received a new bishops since 2004, so a full generation change is currently underway.

Update: The full announcement from Fides can be found here, which however strangely claims the retirement was according to 401§1.

Parishes of Surat Thani diocese

It might be because of my one detour posting about the ecclesiastic subdivision of Thailand, but checking through the search strings which lead readers here there are quite a lot looking for information about churches in Thailand. While there are several websites in Thai about catholic topics, almost none are bilingual, so I will do little bit more on the church subdivisions in Thailand here from time to time trying to fill that gap a little bit.

The diocese of Surat Thani (สังฆมณฑลสุราษฎร์ธานี) was established in 1969, when it was split off from the diocese of Ratchaburi. It covers all the southern provinces, extending up to Phrachuap Khiri Khan in the north, including the town Hua Hin. As the name suggests, its administration and cathedral (see photo) is located in the town Surat Thani.

The diocese is subdivided into 4 areas (เขต) - not sure if these are actually deaneries or just an informal grouping. The diocese website then lists 41 churches within these four areas. Catholic Hierarchy says there are 39 parishes in 2004, which fits with the church list, as two of the churches are named วัดน้อย (chapel) and thus aren't parish churches.

As listing 41 churches would make the posting a bit lengthy, I only list those in the bigger towns, especially the touristic areas, but leave the complete list to be published as a XML, which I will also fill with the other dioceses later. Right now that file is not much more than the church list linked above rewritten in XML, but it will get expanded with time.

• Upper area (เขตภาคใต้ตอนบน) - 11 parishes
  • St. Theresa (วัดนักบุญเทเรซา), Hua Hin
• Central area (เขตภาคใต้ตอนกลาง) - 7 parishes, 1 chapel
  • St. Raphael (อาสนวิหารอัครเทวดาราฟาเอล), Surat Thani, the cathedral of the diocese
  • St. Anna (วัดนักบุญอันนา), Nathon, and a Chapel (วัดน้อยประจำสถานรับเลี้ยงเด็กมารีย์อุปถัมภ์, don't know how to translate it correctly, something about Mary nursery), Bophut, both on Ko Samui
• Lower area (เขตภาคใต้ตอนล่าง) - 12 parishes
  • Our Lady of Lourdes (วัดแม่พระประจักษ์เมืองลูร์), Hat Yai
• Andaman area (เขตอันดามัน) - 9 parishes, 1 chapel
  • St. Agnes (วัดนักบุญอักแนส), Ao Nang, Krabi
  • Our Lady of the Assumption (วัดพระหฤทัยพระเยซูเจ้า), Phuket city, and the Sacret Heart Chapel (วัดน้อยพระหฤทัยศักดิ์สิทธิ์) in Patong

In this Google Map I have marked as many churches of this diocese as I could find the location of, additions or corrections are welcome. Same as the XML, this map will get updated with time.
View Larger Map

Roman Catholic dioceses

While I focus on the civil subdivisions in this blog, there are more divisions of the country. The Roman Catholic church has a very formal territorial organization into ecclesiastical provinces, dioceses, and down to parishes. Probably the best website dealing with these subdivisions worldwide is Catholic Hierarchy, with updates posted in a special blog almost daily.

The Catholic Church in Thailand is a very minority church with only 0.5% of the population being catholic - the country is of course predominately Buddhist. But even though there are just about 300,000 Catholics in the country, the church has subdivided the country into two ecclesiastical provinces with ten dioceses altogether. Each of the diocese have one church designated as a cathedral, like the one of Ratchaburi depicted. Almost all of the diocese are aligned with the boundaries of the civil provinces, with one notable exception. The diocese of Chanthaburi is separated by the archdiocese of Bangkok by the Bang Pa Kong river, and also covers the whole Nakhon Nayok province except the district Ban Na. This oddity gets understandable when one checks the history of Nakhon Nayok province. The province was abolished in 1943, and Ban Na assigned to Saraburi, while the other districts were assigned to Prachinburi. The province was recreated in 1946. And in 1944, while the province did not exist, the apostolic vicariate of Chanthaburi was created, using the then existing civil boundaries. I only don't know why the Bang Pa Kong river was used as the boundary, maybe the elongated shape of Chachoengsao province and some catholic settlements west of the river were the root of this, but that's just my speculation.