Murphy Pakiam

Who is Murphy Pakiam?

Tan Sri Datuk Murphy Nicholas Xavier Pakiam is the third metropolitan archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Pakiam was born in Tapah, Perak and was ordained into the priesthood on 10 May 1964. He was appointed metropolitan archbishop of Kuala Lumpur on 24 May 2003, and was installed five days later. Pakiam is the former president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei; and the publisher of the Catholic weekly newspaper, The Herald.

In 2007, Pakiam filed for a judicial review after The Herald was ordered to stop using the Arabic word "Allah" in its publication by the Malaysian government. In 2009, the High Court overturned the government's ban of the word. In 2010, he accepted the public apology of Al-Islam magazine, which had sent two reporters to a Catholic church the year before, where they desecrated the Eucharist.

St. John's Cathedral in Kuala Lumpur is the seat of Archbishop Pakiam, and the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur.