Archbishop Kevin S. Randall had the opportunity recently to celebrate Mass with members of Connecticut’s Bangladeshi community, a tight-knit group of about 600 worshipers based in Manchester.
A well-traveled man who has served in Roman Catholic diplomatic posts on four continents, Archbishop Randall, the Church’s newly-named Apostolic Nuncio to Bangladesh,c
“We’re a country of immigrants and it takes different forms at different times. It’s interesting to see what attracts them,” the New London native said several weeks before his ordination to bishop Nov. 4, 2023 at the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Norwich. “The Bible says to ‘Welcome the stranger,’ and we know that is certainly a big theme of Pope Francis, to welcome with open arms those who are in need.”
Connecticut’s Bangladeshi Catholics were present at the ordination, where members of the choir sang. Soon, their countrymen will welcome the Archbishop with the Titular See of Glenndálocha, as he is now known, to his new home. Archbishop Randall will move abroad on Nov. 23 and be based in Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka, in the nunciature there.
It’s a country of about 170 million people, 91% Muslim and 8% Hindu. Catholics comprise about 400,000 of the population.
A soft-spoken man never at a loss for words, he felt a mix of excitement and nervousness when he learned in August of his appointment as Apostolic Nuncio to Bangladesh by Pope Francis.
“I’m excited to become a bishop and to be given this Apostolic mission,” he said. “The nervousness would be more about what does it mean to become an Apostle,” he said.
From North and South America to Europe and Africa, Archbishop Randall, 57, has traveled much of the globe during his 20-plus years as part of the diplomatic service of the Holy See.
It’s given him a unique window on the world that, he said, will help him in his role as a Papal ambassador in Bangladesh. It’s his first assignment in an Asian country.
“I appreciate the confidence that the Holy Father and superiors in Rome have placed in me,” he added. 
The Nuncio is “the person that represents the Pope to the local church,” he said. “And is an accredited diplomat to the local government.”
In his long diplomatic career, he has had the opportunity to be on the ground in Rwanda, Serbia and Montenegro, in Slovenia and Macedonia, Peru and in the Republic of South Africa, where the Nunciature is also accredited in Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Later, he served in Mexico, and was most recently assigned to the Pontifical representation in Austria. As a young priest, he spent time locally at Our Lady of Lourdes in Gales Ferry and St. Joseph parish in New London. His diplomatic service began in Rwanda, a country ravaged by genocide just a few short years before his arrival. “It was a difficult period, but a lovely time for me. The people were wonderful, the culture very interesting,” he said.
He recalled visiting a missionary parish up in the mountains on the Ugandan border. After a difficult trek up the mountain, his group encountered a community that had been neglected since the 1994 genocide.
“It was very touching to meet the many, many people who had walked for hours just to come to this Catholic Mass with the nuncio,” he said. While in Rwanda, he was able to help his first nuncio in the administration of constructing an entirely new nunciature and nurture an ecclesiastical balance during a delicate social period for the Rwandans.
In 2017, he retired from a highly-decorated military career of some 28 years, serving as a U.S. Air Force Reserve Chaplain attached to the 31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy, among other assignments at home and abroad.
“It was a joy of my life to give my service, give my summer vacations to serve in the Armed Forces,” he said. “It was fantastic work. You’re just a priest in a different uniform.”
Archbishop Randall tries to heed the words of Pope Francis, to “get out from behind your desk,” he said. “He wants a Nuncio with his feet on the ground and visiting pastorally with his people,” the archbishop said.
Serving also as a diplomat to the local government is an important role. “You work and collaborate and write reports on the health of that state in which you serve,” he said. The nuncio typically serves for about five years in a particular diplomatic post.
With decades of diplomatic service, Archbishop Randall says the joy in his vocation boils down to this: “I think that every country and culture has something beautiful to offer in its people,” he said. “A priest is at the service of his people. The beauty of the service to be there is in meeting them, in knowing their life stories and their hopes, their dreams.”
By Ryan Blessing
