Patriarchate

On Wednesday 21 June 2017, the Holy Synod of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church elected Archbishop Joseph Absi as the Church’s new patriarch. He received ecclesiastical communion from Pope Francis the following day.Patriarch Joseph, aged 71, succeeds Patriarch Gregory III Laham, who retired 6 May at the age of 83.

The new patriarch was born in Damascus in 1946. He was or-dained a priest of the Missionary Society of St Paul in 1973. In 1999 he became superior general of the society, and two years later was appointed curial bishop of the Melkite Patriarchate of Antioch. In 2007, he was appointed the Patriarchal Vicar of the Melkite Archdio-cese of Damascus.

During the 2010 Synod on the Middle East, then-Archbishop Jo-seph lamented the strife among the Eastern Catholic Churches, call-ing the struggle a “fount of impairment and false testimony,” accord-ing to VaticanInsider.

“The Christians of the East,” he said, “are all in 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 Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon. He has taught philosophy, Greek, and musicology at the university level.

Pope Francis wrote to Patriarch Joseph the day after his election, congratulating him and granting him ecclesiastical communion.

The Pope 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 Greek-Melkite Church and when many Christian communities in the Middle East are called to bear wit-ness 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 [Father and Head] in the service of the faithful of the Greek-Melkite Church, but also a faithful and authentic witness to the Risen One.”

August 16	Patriarch's Letter on Beirut
April 17	Patriarch's 2020 Paschal Letter
May 15	Al-Azhar International Conference On Global Peace
May 15	Abandonment of Patriarchal Service
April 13	Patriarch's 2017 Paschal Letter
March 22	Patriarch's 2017 Lenten Letter
February 23	Close of the Holy Synod
December 29	Meeting of the Council of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs & Bishops of Alexandria in St. Stephanos' House, Maadi, Egypt