Archbishop Tarcisio Kikuchi of Tokyo (Photo: YouTube screenshot)
The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) has elected Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo its new secretary-general.
Archbishop Kikuchi in an announcement said he received the news of his election on July 21 in an email that “unexpectedly came” from the FABC secretariat in Hong Kong. "The Central Committee has voted and elected you to replace Bishop Lee of Macau, the current secretary-general of the FABC, who has offered his resignation due to his busy schedule,” the announcement said, quoting from the letter of Myanmar Cardinal Charles Bo, the FABC president. The FABC Central Committee is composed of the presidents of the bishops' conferences in each country. “I did not expect this, and now have become the secretary-general of the FABC. I still do not know my duties or how long I will be in office,” Archbishop Kikuchi said. The FABC covers three Asian regions — South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. Cardinal Bo is from Southeast Asia and the federation's vice-president, Sri Lankan Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, is from South Asia.I will appreciate your prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit
“So it seems that I was chosen as an East Asian to replace the bishop of Macau,” the Japanese prelate said.
Archbishop Kikuchi was elected president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan this month and will be taking office next February. The FABC, which completed 50 years of its establishment last year, is scheduled to have a plenary assembly next year in Bangkok. “I suppose I will have to work on that. I will work as hard as I can at that while relying on the secretariat in Hong Kong. I will appreciate your prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” Archbishop Kikuchi said.The 63-year archbishop was a member of FABC’s Office of Human Development.
A member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), he served as a missionary priest in Ghana for 13 years.
On his return from the African mission in 1999, he was elected as SVD's regional superior in 1999.
He was named bishop of Niigata in 2004 and became archbishop of Tokyo in 2017.He was Caritas Asia's president from 2011 to 2019.