Dioceses of the Syrian Catholic Church
Encyclopedia
The Syrian Catholic Church, established in the second half of the 17th century as a Catholic offshoot of the Syrian Orthodox Church, had around a dozen dioceses in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. Three of these dioceses were ruined during the First World War in the Assyrian and Armenian massacres, and the 20th century also saw the growth of an important Syriac Catholic diaspora in America, Europe and Australasia. The Syrian Catholic Church presently has fifteen dioceses, mostly in the Middle East, and four patriarchal vicariates for the diaspora communities.
At the beginning of the 19th century the Syrian Catholic Church had dioceses for Jerusalem, Aleppo, Damascus, Edessa, Amid, Mardin, Gazarta (from 1818), Mosul (from 1790) and the Monastery of Mar Behnam. In 1817 a diocese was created for Beirut, which persisted until 1898. In 1862 a separate diocese was created for Baghdad and Basra, hitherto under the jurisdiction of the bishops of Mosul.
According to a population statistic of 1898, the Syrian Catholic church had just under 23,000 members, organised in nine dioceses.
Like their Syrian Orthodox and Chaldean counterparts, the Syrian Catholic dioceses of Amid, Mardin and Gazarta were ruined in the First World War (Flavian Mikha’il Malke, Syrian Catholic bishop of Gazarta, was killed by the Turks in 1915), and were not afterwards revived. A new Syrian Catholic diocese was established for Hasakah in 1957, and the town has been the seat of a Syrian Catholic bishop since 1959. The diocese of Beirut has remained vacant since 1898, and the relatively small Syrian Catholic community of Beirut has been under the jurisdiction of a patriarchal vicar or apostolic administrator for most of the past eleven decades.
According to a Catholic statistic of 1962, the Syrian Catholic Church had just over 65,000 members in the Middle East at that time, plus a further 15,000 or so members in America and elsewhere.
Table 1: Population of the Syrian Catholic Church, 1962
According to a Catholic statistic of 1964, the Syrian Catholic Church consisted of a patriarchal archdiocese, four archdioceses (Aleppo, Damascus, Mosul, and Baghdad), two dioceses (Homs and Hama, and Jazira and Euphrates), and six patriarchal vicariates (Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan–Palestine, Mardin, Rome, and Paris).
Table 2: Population of the Syrian Catholic Church, 1964
The Syrian Catholic Church presently has eleven bishops:
His Excellency
, Basile Georges Casmoussa
, 72, who had been the Archbishop of the Archeparchy of Mosul, was transferred to a position in the Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Curia. The Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Syriac Catholic Church elected the Protosyncellus
(Vicar General
) of the Archeparchy of Mosul, Father Boutros Moshe, 67, to be the new Archbishop. The Holy Father
, His Holiness
, Pope Benedict XVI
, consented to his canonical election on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, sealing the appointment. He will be ordained an Archbishop and installed at a later date. The Mosul Archeparchy has 35,000 Catholics, 36 priests, and 55 religious.
Also on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI consented to the canonical election by the Syriac Synod of Bishops of the Right Reverend Father Yousif Abba (Yousif Mansoor), 59, until now the Chancellor
of the Syriac Catholic Eparchy of the United States and Canada under Bishop Habash and currently serving at the St. Joseph Syrian Catholic Church in Mississauga, Ontario
, Canada
, as the new Archbishop-elect of the Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Baghdad, Iraq. Archbishop Yousif is a native Iraqi. Since 1997, he has been in charge of pastoral care for Syrian-rite Catholics in the United States and Canada. He speaks Syrian, French, Arabic, and English. He succeeds His Excellency
, the Most Reverend
Athanase Mattai Shaba Matoka, who resigned from that position (he has been there since 1983) as Archbishop Emeritus. He will be ordained an Archbishop and installed at a later date. The Baghdad Archeparchy has 18,000 Syriac Catholics and seven priests.
Finally, also on March 1, 2011, the Pope approved the canonical election of the Right Reverend Father Jihad Battah, 54, until then the Protosyncellus
(Vicar General
) of the Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Damascus, Syria, under Metropolitan Gregory Aliya Tabe, as a Bishop-elect of the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Curia. He will be ordained a Bishop and installed at a later date.
The diocese of Beirut has remained vacant for more than a century. Theophilus Giwargis Kassab, metropolitan of Homs, presently administers the diocese in the capacity of apostolic administrator. The patriarchal exarchate of Basra and Kuwait has been under the care of Father Marzena Eshak since 2003, and the patriarchal exarchate of Turkey has been under the care of Monsignor Joseph Sagh since 1991. Clement Joseph Hannush, bishop of Cairo, has been responsible for the patriarchal territory of Sudan since 1997, in the capacity of protosyncellus
.
The church also has four patriarchal vicariates (Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, Sweden and France), and a patriarchal procurate in Rome. In 2010 there were an estimated 159,000 Syrian Catholics, under the care of 11 bishops and over a hundred priests.
History
During the 18th century the Syrian Catholic church established dioceses in the major cities of the Ottoman empire with significant West Syrian communities, and also became the dominant West Syrian grouping in a number of villages in northern Iraq, gaining control of the monastery of Mar Behnam near Mosul.At the beginning of the 19th century the Syrian Catholic Church had dioceses for Jerusalem, Aleppo, Damascus, Edessa, Amid, Mardin, Gazarta (from 1818), Mosul (from 1790) and the Monastery of Mar Behnam. In 1817 a diocese was created for Beirut, which persisted until 1898. In 1862 a separate diocese was created for Baghdad and Basra, hitherto under the jurisdiction of the bishops of Mosul.
According to a population statistic of 1898, the Syrian Catholic church had just under 23,000 members, organised in nine dioceses.
Like their Syrian Orthodox and Chaldean counterparts, the Syrian Catholic dioceses of Amid, Mardin and Gazarta were ruined in the First World War (Flavian Mikha’il Malke, Syrian Catholic bishop of Gazarta, was killed by the Turks in 1915), and were not afterwards revived. A new Syrian Catholic diocese was established for Hasakah in 1957, and the town has been the seat of a Syrian Catholic bishop since 1959. The diocese of Beirut has remained vacant since 1898, and the relatively small Syrian Catholic community of Beirut has been under the jurisdiction of a patriarchal vicar or apostolic administrator for most of the past eleven decades.
According to a Catholic statistic of 1962, the Syrian Catholic Church had just over 65,000 members in the Middle East at that time, plus a further 15,000 or so members in America and elsewhere.
Table 1: Population of the Syrian Catholic Church, 1962
| Region | No. of Parishes | No. of Churches | No. of Priests | No. of Believers | Region | No. of Parishes | No. of Churches | No. of Priests | No. of Believers |
| Lebanon | 6 | 6 | 14 | 14,500 | Damascus | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3,807 |
| Egypt | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4,000 | Hims | 12 | 12 | 12 | 4,135 |
| Jordan | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1,200 | Mosul | 8 | 10 | 25 | 17,000 |
| Turkey | 4 | 4 | 2 | 800 | Hassakeh | 7 | 8 | 9 | 4,000 |
| Aleppo | 6 | 2 | 6 | 7,100 | Baghdad | 5 | 5 | 11 | 8,750 |
| Total | 55 | 55 | 90 | 65,292 |
According to a Catholic statistic of 1964, the Syrian Catholic Church consisted of a patriarchal archdiocese, four archdioceses (Aleppo, Damascus, Mosul, and Baghdad), two dioceses (Homs and Hama, and Jazira and Euphrates), and six patriarchal vicariates (Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan–Palestine, Mardin, Rome, and Paris).
Table 2: Population of the Syrian Catholic Church, 1964
| Region | No. of Churches | No. of Priests | No. of Believers | Region | No. of Villages | No. of Churches | No. of Believers |
| Lebanon | 8 | 14 | 15,000 | Damascus | 5 | 7 | 4,250 |
| Egypt | 4 | 5 | 4,750 | Mosul | 17 | 24 | 14,000 |
| Jordan and Palestine | 2 | 1 | 1,500 | Baghdad | 8 | 10 | 15,000 |
| Turkey | 5 | 3 | 9,000 | Homs and Hama | 12 | 10 | 5,100 |
| Rome | 1 | 1 | 370 | Mosul | 10 | 25 | 17,000 |
| Paris | 1 | 2 | 3,500 | Jazira and Euphrates | 7 | 9 | 6,400 |
| Aleppo | 5 | 6 | 8,000 | Total | 85 | 117 | 103,870 |
Present hierarchy
The Syrian Catholic Church presently has fifteen dioceses: one patriarchal see (in Beirut); two metropolitanates (Damascus and Homs); four archdioceses (Aleppo, Hassakeh–Nisibis, Baghdad and Mosul); three dioceses (Beirut, Cairo and Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark); one apostolic exarchate (Venezuela); three patriarchal exarchates (Basra and Kuwait, Jerusalem and Turkey); and the patriarchal territory of Sudan. The diocese of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark covers the United States and Canada, while the patriarchal exarchate of Jerusalem covers Israel, Palestine and Jordan.The Syrian Catholic Church presently has eleven bishops:
- Ignatius Joseph III YonanIgnace Joseph III YounanMar Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Yonan is the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Syrians of the Syriac Catholic Church since January 20, 2009.-Life:...
, Patriarch of Antioch (since January 2009); - Gregory Eliya Tabe, Metropolitan of Damascus (since June 2001);
- Theophilus Giwargis Kassab, Metropolitan of Homs (since December 1999);
- Dionysius Anton Chahda, Archbishop of Aleppo (since September 2001);
- Yaqob Behnam Hindo, Archbishop of Hassakeh–Nisibis (since June 1996);
- Yousif Abba (Yousif Mansoor), Archbishop-elect of Baghdad (since March 2011);
- Father Boutros Moshe, Archbishop-elect of Mosul (since March 2011);
- Clement Joseph Hannush, Bishop of Cairo (since June 1995);
- Yousif Benham Habash, Bishop of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark;
- Iwanis Lewis Awad, Apostolic Exarch of Venezuela (since May 2003); and
- Gregory Peter Melki, Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem (since February 2002).
His Excellency
Excellency
Excellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...
, Basile Georges Casmoussa
Basile Georges Casmoussa
Basile Georges Casmoussa is the Syrian Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of the Syrian Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul, Iraq. His Excellency, Archbishop Emeritus Casmoussa was transferred to the Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Curia...
, 72, who had been the Archbishop of the Archeparchy of Mosul, was transferred to a position in the Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Curia. The Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Syriac Catholic Church elected the Protosyncellus
Protosyncellus
A protosyncellus or protosynkellos is the principal deputy of the bishop of an eparchy for the exercise of administrative authority in an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic church...
(Vicar General
Vicar general
A vicar general is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular...
) of the Archeparchy of Mosul, Father Boutros Moshe, 67, to be the new Archbishop. The Holy Father
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
, His Holiness
His Holiness
His Holiness is the official style or manner of address in reference to the leaders of certain religious groups. In Christianity, specifically the Orthodox Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, Armenian Orthodox Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Roman Catholic...
, Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
, consented to his canonical election on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, sealing the appointment. He will be ordained an Archbishop and installed at a later date. The Mosul Archeparchy has 35,000 Catholics, 36 priests, and 55 religious.
Also on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI consented to the canonical election by the Syriac Synod of Bishops of the Right Reverend Father Yousif Abba (Yousif Mansoor), 59, until now the Chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of the Syriac Catholic Eparchy of the United States and Canada under Bishop Habash and currently serving at the St. Joseph Syrian Catholic Church in Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga is a city in Southern Ontario located in the Regional Municipality of Peel, and in the western part of the Greater Toronto Area. With an estimated population of 734,000, it is Canada's sixth-most populous municipality, and has almost doubled in population in each of the last two decades...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, as the new Archbishop-elect of the Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Baghdad, Iraq. Archbishop Yousif is a native Iraqi. Since 1997, he has been in charge of pastoral care for Syrian-rite Catholics in the United States and Canada. He speaks Syrian, French, Arabic, and English. He succeeds His Excellency
Excellency
Excellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...
, the Most Reverend
Most Reverend
The Most Reverend is a style applied to certain religious figures.*In the Roman Catholic Church , all bishops are styled "The Most Reverend", as well as monsignors of the rank of protonotary apostolic de numero.*In the Roman Catholic Church , archbishops are styled "The...
Athanase Mattai Shaba Matoka, who resigned from that position (he has been there since 1983) as Archbishop Emeritus. He will be ordained an Archbishop and installed at a later date. The Baghdad Archeparchy has 18,000 Syriac Catholics and seven priests.
Finally, also on March 1, 2011, the Pope approved the canonical election of the Right Reverend Father Jihad Battah, 54, until then the Protosyncellus
Protosyncellus
A protosyncellus or protosynkellos is the principal deputy of the bishop of an eparchy for the exercise of administrative authority in an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic church...
(Vicar General
Vicar general
A vicar general is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular...
) of the Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Damascus, Syria, under Metropolitan Gregory Aliya Tabe, as a Bishop-elect of the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Curia. He will be ordained a Bishop and installed at a later date.
The diocese of Beirut has remained vacant for more than a century. Theophilus Giwargis Kassab, metropolitan of Homs, presently administers the diocese in the capacity of apostolic administrator. The patriarchal exarchate of Basra and Kuwait has been under the care of Father Marzena Eshak since 2003, and the patriarchal exarchate of Turkey has been under the care of Monsignor Joseph Sagh since 1991. Clement Joseph Hannush, bishop of Cairo, has been responsible for the patriarchal territory of Sudan since 1997, in the capacity of protosyncellus
Protosyncellus
A protosyncellus or protosynkellos is the principal deputy of the bishop of an eparchy for the exercise of administrative authority in an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic church...
.
The church also has four patriarchal vicariates (Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, Sweden and France), and a patriarchal procurate in Rome. In 2010 there were an estimated 159,000 Syrian Catholics, under the care of 11 bishops and over a hundred priests.