Pakistan’s Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori presenting the national award ‘Tamgha-e-Imtiaz’ to Cardinal Joseph Coutts in Karachi.
TORONTO
The Head of the Catholic Church in Pakistan, Cardinal Joseph Coutts, was conferred the ‘Tamgha-e-Imtiaz’ one of the highest civil awards by the President of Pakistan on March 23, the country’s National Day.
Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori presented the national award to Cardinal Coutts in Karachi.
The government of Pakistan honoured Cardinal Coutts with the prestigious award for promoting interfaith dialogue in the Muslim-majority nation. He is a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
“Cardinal Coutts played an important role in establishing interfaith dialogue between Muslims and the Catholic community in Karachi,” read the citation at the award ceremony in the port city.
Coutts was among 104 Pakistanis and foreigners honoured with national awards by President Asif Ali Zardari. In Karachi, he was among 12 others who received such awards.
Expressing his gratitude for the recognition, Cardinal Coutts said, “I am grateful and happy. However, it’s not anything historical. Many people, including nuns, have been given different awards already,” he said.
Emmanuel Neno, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Catechetics in Pakistan, said it is a moment of "great pride for the Christian community" in Pakistan.
“For a Catholic leader, such recognition reaffirms the Church's vital role in fostering unity and mutual respect in our diverse society,” he said.
Coutts "has been a leading figure — not just among government and diplomatic officials but also in communities like Faisalabad, where he served as Bishop, besides his work in Balochistan and the two dioceses of Sindh province, Karachi and Hyderabad.
Joseph Coutts served as Archbishop of Karachi from 2012 to 2021, Bishop of Hyderabad from 1998 to 2012, and earlier in 1998 was Bishop of Faisalabad. He was created Cardinal by Pope Francis on June 28, 2018.
Cardinal Joseph Coutts earlier this year at his home in Ucassaim-Goa, in front of the photos of his first cousin, Archbishop of Delhi Anil Couto, his uncle late Fr Antonio Jose Faustino Couto and granduncle late Canon Jose Romaldo Menezes.
Joseph Coutts was born in Amritsar, British India, on July 21, 1945 in a Goan family from the village of Aldona, North Goa. Anil Joseph Thomas Couto, Archbishop of Delhi, is his first cousin. Coutts can speak several languages including English, Italian, German, French, Urdu, Punjabi, and Sindhi. He received his religious training at the Christ the King Seminary in Karachi and was ordained a priest in Lahore, Pakistan on January 9, 1971.
Coutts is the long-time Chairman of Caritas Pakistan and directed its earthquake relief efforts in 2005. He served as President of Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference from 2011 to 2017. He became the country's second cardinal after Joseph Cordeiro (1918–1994), who was also of Goan origin.
On January 9, 2021, he celebrated 50 years of his priestly ordination by celebrating Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral. His resignation as Archbishop of Karachi was accepted by Pope Francis on February 11, 2021.
In 2007, Cardinal Coutts was awarded the Shalom Prize by the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany, for his commitment to promote interfaith dialogue in Pakistan.
“My priority has been to first strengthen ourselves and promote unity as Christians and also to promote good relations with the Muslims and other communities in Pakistan,” Cardinal Coutts had told The Goan during his visit to Goa earlier this year.
He is currently among the six cardinals of Goan origin: Cardinal Valerian Gracias (Dramapur), Cardinal Joseph Cordeiro (Salvador do Mundo), Cardinal Ivan Dias (Velsao) and Cardinal Oswald Gracias (Orlim), Cardinal Coutts (Aldona) and Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao (Aldona).
(The writer is a Toronto-based communications consultant, Karachi Goan community/city historian and author.)
