His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith – Founder/ Chancellor

His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo is the founder and first Chancellor of the BCI Campus.

His Eminence was ordained priest in 1975 by His Holiness Pope Paul VI in Rome, and was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo in 1991, and then as the Bishop of Ratnapura. In 2004 His Eminence was nominated as the Apostolic Nuncio (Vatican Ambassador) to Indonesia and East Timor. His Eminence has also served the Holy See (Vatican State) in various capacities. In 2009 His Eminence was appointed the ninth Catholic Archbishop of Colombo, and was subsequently elevated to the Cardinalate by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith had his higher education at the Pontifical Urban University (Rome), the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His Eminence is a polyglot who is fluent in the languages of Sinhala, English, Tamil, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Indonesian-Bhasha, Greek, Latin and Hebrew. His Eminence was awarded the Thomas Aquinas Medallion in the field of religious education by Thomas Aquinas College, California, USA (2007) and the seventh International Award “Giuseppe Sciacca” by the President of the Republic of Italy for achievements in the cultural field (2008). His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has also served in the Council of the University of Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka.