Paul Tan Chee Ing


Paul Tan Chee Ing, S.J., S.T.L., PhD, D.D., commonly referred to as Bishop Paul Tan, is the second Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Malacca-Johor. He was also the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei from the year 2011 to 2012.

Early life

Tan was born on April 5, 1940, in Yong Peng, Johor state of migrants from Fujian province, China. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Hong Kong in 1959, and furthered his studies in the Philippines and Taiwan before obtaining a Licentiate in Theology at Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Dublin, Ireland.

Education

In 1971, he was ordained a priest and began doctoral studies at Ecole des Hautes Etudes in France. His doctoral dissertation on the thoughts of Mao Zedong, founder of China's communist party, was submitted in French and earned him a doctorate cum laude. Bishop Tan is fluent in English, French, Italian, Malay and Mandarin, as well as other Chinese dialects.

Religious work

After his studies, he went to Colombia in Latin America for a final year of Jesuit formation. Back in Malaysia, he helped establish the Catholic Research Centre in Malaysia in 1977 to help keep Catholics informed about Church teachings on ethics and social issues, as well as on political, social and economic developments in Malaysia.
Bishop Tan was also a founder of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism in the early 1980s. Today, the council consults with the government, and vice versa, on laws, policies and other matters affecting non-Muslims.
He has also been active in ecumenism, having served as assistant secretary and later as executive committee member of the Christian Federation of Malaysia until he went to Rome 1992. In Rome, he served as the Jesuit superior general's regional assistant for East Asia and Oceania.
Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Malacca-Johor on Feb. 13, 2003. His episcopal ordination was on May 15, 2003. In January 2011 he became the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
Pope Francis accepted Bishop Tan's resignation from office on November 19, 2015. Pope Francis appointed Bishop Anthony Bernard Paul to succeed him.