Archbishop Paul Tschang In-Nam, apostolic delegate to Myanmar meeting with Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in her residence in Naypyidaw, in February. (Photo supplied by Archdiocese of Yangon)
Myanmar has agreed to the appointment of Archbishop Paul Tschang In-Nam as Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
The agreement came after Myanmar and Vatican established full diplomatic ties shortly following Pope Francis meeting with State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi at the Vatican on May 4.
The Vatican then announced the pope would appoint a nuncio to Myanmar and receive an ambassador from the Southeast Asian nation.
Archbishop Tschang was born Oct. 30, 1949 in Seoul, Korea and became a priest in 1976. He was consecrated as a bishop in 2003 in Rome.
He joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1985 and served at the Apostolic Nunciatures in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Syria, France, Greece and Belgium in various capacities until 2002.
He also served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Bangladesh from 2003-2007 and Uganda from 2007-2012. Since 2012, he has been serving as Apostolic Nuncio to Thailand and Cambodia and Apostolic Delegate to Myanmar and Lao PDR.
Catholics are a minority in Myanmar which has a population of 51 million people most of whom are Buddhists. There are about 700,000 Catholics served by 16 bishops, more than 700 priests and 2,200 religious in the country.
While serving as Apostolic Nuncio to Myanmar Archbishop Tschang will be based in Bangkok, Thailand.