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Archcomms, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsLINKS
Vatican bio of Cardinal Goh
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_goh_w.html
William Goh Seng Chye on FIU's Cardinals Database (by Salvadore Miranda):
https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios2022.htm#Goh
Cardinal Goh on Gcatholic.org:
http://www.gcatholic.org/p/51831
Cardinal Goh on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bgoh.html
Archdiocese of Singapore on Gcatholic.org:
http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/sing0.htm?tab=info
Archdiocese of Singapore on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dsngp.html
2013 Singapore News interview with the new bishop (archived via Archive.org):
https://web.archive.org/web/20130224030700/http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1255881/1/.html
2022 Vatican News interview with Cardinal-Elect Goh:
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2022-07/interview-meet-the-first-future-cardinal-of-singapore.html
2022 Catholic News Singapore coverage of World Day of Migrants and Refugees w/Archbishop Goh
https://catholicnews.sg/2022/10/16/building-the-future-with-migrants/
Website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei:
https://cbcmsb.org/about/
2016 english-Language reminiscing from then-Archbishop Goh:
https://youtu.be/XigJFfXDg3Y?si=xZsFrWbyzaij-kFA
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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Popeular History, a library of Catholic knowledge and insights.
Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript.
Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes.
William GOH SENG CHYE was born on June 25, 1957 in Singapore, an island city-state in southeast Asia just off the Malay Peninsula, which was at the time still a British crown colony, but which would soon begin self-rule. I mentioned Singapore when discussing Cardinal Francis, who was born just across the strait in neighboring Malaysia. In fact, I even referenced today's Cardinal, saying I would be covering him in November, but of course things changed a bit since then and I expect you'll forgive me if I don't wait until this November to avoid being wrong about that.
Anyways, as if to underscore how close all of Singapore is to its larger neighbor, William did the philosophy half of his seminary training in Malaysia and the theology half in Singapore. Shortly before his 28th birthday, he was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Singapore, and yes, if you guessed that the Archdiocese of Singapore is actually the only diocese in Singapore, you'd be correct. We looked at the somewhat similar case of tiny Luxembourg a couple episodes ago, but there are differences here, most notably in terms of population density- Singapore is less than a third the size of Luxembourg, but has over eight times the population. The island is basically one big city, home to nearly six million souls. Also, unlike Luxembourg, most of those souls aren't Catholic, with the Church claiming 170,000 adherents, or a little over 3% of the population.
The first five years of William's priesthood were spent as a pastor in one of Singapore's 32 Catholic churches. As a colonial legacy, Masses in Singapore are typically said in English, and yes Cardinal Goh's English is fine. Oops, sorry, I'm supposed be calling him Father Goh for this
