PTI

Kathmandu, May 6: The first Catholic Bishop of Nepal was officially appointed at a special function near here on Sunday, nearly a year after the former Hindu nation declared itself a secular state.

Addressing the ceremony at the Catholic Church at Dhobighat in the outskirts of Kathmandu, Bishop Anthony Francis Sharma pledged greater participation of the Christian community for the development of the country.

There are some 3,000 Catholics in Nepal, though the Protestants are claimed to have reached one million in number.

The 69-year-old Bishop was born as Amulya Nath Sharma, a Hindu Brahmin, but later switched to Christianity. He was ceremonially ordained on Saturday at Kathmandu's Catholic Church by the Vatican's representative for Nepal and India, Pedro Lopez Quintana, church sources said.

Sharma was named Nepal's first Bishop by Pope Benedict XVI in February, almost a year after Nepal's Parliament abolished Hinduism as the state religion on May 18, 2006.

Bishops from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Japan attended the episcopal ordination ceremony during which Quintana placed the mitre on the new bishop's head, the official ring on his finger and the pastoral staff in his hand.