Bishop Felix Lian Khen Thang

Bishop Felix Lian Khen Thang, Bishop of Kalay, was born on December 25, 1959, at Gam Ngai, in Chin State and in what is now the Diocese of Hakha. After attending the St. Aloysius minor seminary at Pyin Oo Lwin he studied philosophy and theology at the major seminary of Yangon, and at the same time read psychology at the state University of Arts and Science of Yangon, taking a bachelor's degree in 1984. He was ordained a priest on February 23, 1990, and was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Mandalay until the erection of the new Diocese of Hakha, in which he was incardinated on November 21, 1992. He was parish priest at Saizang from 1990 to 1992, and from 1992 to 1997 he studied for a degree in canon law at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, residing first at the College of St. Peter the Apostle and then at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in preparation for the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He served as attaché of the apostolic nunciature in Madagascar from 1997 to 1998, as secretary of the apostolic nunciature in Bangladesh from 1998 to 2001, and as secretary of the apostolic nunciature in Morocco from 2001 to 2004, and from 2004 he was secretary to the bishop and diocesan chancellor. On March 3, 2006, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Hakha and Titular Bishop of Fessae. He received episcopal ordination on May 6, 2006, with Salvatore Pennacchio as principal consecrator and Paul Zingtung Grawng and Nicholas Mang Thang as co-consecrators. On May 22, 2010, he was appointed Bishop of Kalay, and he was installed on June 29, 2010.