Beirut, Lebanon, Jun 22, 2017 / 12:07 pm ( CNA/
EWTN News ).- The synod of the Melkite Greek
Catholic Church elected on Wednesday
Archbishop Youssef Absi as the Church's new
patriarch, who received ecclesiastical
communion from Pope Francis the following day.
Elected June 21, Patriarch Absi, 71, succeeds
Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, who retired May 6
at the age of 83.
The new patriarch was born in Damascus in
1946. He was ordained a priest of the Missionary
Society of St. Paul in 1973. He became superior
general of the society in 1999, and two years
later was appointed curial bishop of the Melkite
Patriarchate of Antioch. In 2007, he was
appointed the Patriarchal Vicar of of the Melkite
Archdiocese of Damascus.
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern
Catholic Church of the Byzantine rite, and it
consists of some 1.5 million members. It is
based in Syria and Lebanon, and most of its
eparchies are in the Arab world. It also has
structures to serve the Melkite diaspora in
Australia, Turkey, Canada, Mexico, the United
States, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela.
The Melkite Church traces its roots to the
earliest days of Christianity, when Sts. Peter and
Paul first evangelized the peoples of Syria, where
followers of Christ were first called “Christians.”
During the 2010 Synod on the Middle East,
Patriarch Absi lamented the strife among the
Eastern Catholic Churches, calling the struggle a
“fount of impairment and false testimony,”
according to Vatican Insider .
“The Christians of the East,” he said, “are all on
the same boat, and confront the same struggle.
They cannot be disinterested each in the other.”
The new patriarch holds licentiates in philosophy
and theology, and a doctorate in musical
sciences and Byzantine hymnography from the
Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon. He
has taught philosophy, Greek, and musicology at
the university level.
Pope Francis wrote to Patriarch Absi the day
after his election, congratulating him and
granting him ecclesiastical communion.
Francis also noted the tribulation facing
Christians in the region.
“The election of Your Beatitude comes at the
time of a delicate situation for the venerable
Greco-Melkite Church and when many Christian
communities in the Middle East are called to
bear witness in a special way to their faith in the
dead and risen Christ,” the Roman Pontiff said.
“In this particularly difficult time, Pastors are
called upon to manifest communion, unity,
closeness, solidarity and transparency before the
suffering people of God.”
“I am certain that your Beatitude, in fraternal
harmony with all the Synod Fathers, will know, in
all evangelical wisdom, how to be not only 'Pater
et Caput' in the service of the faithful of the
Greco-Melkite Church, but also a faithful and
authentic witness to the Risen One.”


http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/youssef-absi-elected-patriarch-of-melkite-greek-catholic-church-12148/