Posted on 02/17/2009 12:05:08 PM PST by NYer
Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan is veiled as he walks in procession at his installation Mass at Our Lady of the Annunciation Syrian Catholic Church in Beirut, Lebanon, Feb. 15. He is immediately followed by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington. (CNS)
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Amid cheers and ululation, the former head of the Syrian Catholic diocese in the U.S. and Canada was installed as patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church.
Saying that he will "serve, not for personal interests, but to win Christ," Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan was installed Feb. 15 at a Mass steeped in rituals characteristic of the Catholic Church's Eastern rites.
People applauded and cheered and women ululated during the entrance procession at Our Lady of the Annunciation Syrian Catholic Church in Beirut. The veiled Patriarch Younan was led into the church by several Syrian Catholic bishops, including Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, retired Syrian patriarch.
The new patriarch made his way past patriarchs, cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns of the Eastern and Latin churches, as well as the Orthodox churches. He took his seat under the crucifix behind the altar, where he remained covered in a lace veil, a symbol of Jesus' 40-day fast in the desert, until he was officially enthroned as patriarch just before Communion.
Cardinal Daoud celebrated the Mass in Arabic and Aramaic.
Immediately following his enthronement, Patriarch Younan blessed the faithful as he was lifted three times in his chair.
"Blessings ... long life," the faithful chanted in Arabic. Women in the choir ululated amid the cheers and applause.
Patriarch Younan said, "It is a great honor I don't deserve, but I put my whole trust in the one who said, 'You have not chosen me; I have chosen you.'"
Thanking those "who had traveled a great distance," the new patriarch praised "my dear friend," Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, "who truly was my father in the faith since my very beginning as a missionary priest then as bishop in the United States."
"With his fraternal support and solicitude, His Eminence allowed our small Syrian Catholic community in Newark, N.J., to grow in size and grace," he said. Cardinal McCarrick served as archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000.
Worldwide there are an estimated 200,000 Syrian Catholics, including 60,000-65,000 in the United States and Canada. Patriarch Younan was sent to the United States to serve the Syrian communities there in 1986. From 1995 until his January election as the new patriarch of Antioch, Patriarch Younan was the head of the Newark-based Syrian-rite diocese in the United States and Canada.
Cardinal McCarrick, speaking in French, said Patriarch Younan was like a little brother "who I am proud to consider as my spiritual friend."
On the altar, Cardinal McCarrick sat alongside Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church.
In his address, Patriarch Younan expressed delight that his classmate from Rome, Syro-Malankara Bishop Abraham Kackanatt of Muvattupuzha, India, was able to attend.
"Your presence today is an urgent reminder for all of us to strengthen our ecclesial and liturgical communion," PatriarchYounan said.
In his remarks, Bishop Kackanatt said the patriarch was returning to the roots of the church, "the cradle of conviviality and spirituality."
"I pray that the patriarch will bring a new spirit to this church and all churches. May you bring more unity and love to all the churches thriving here today that, unfortunately, are not in full communion," Bishop Kackanatt said.
Drawing cheers from the estimated 150 people who came from Syria -- some from Patriarch Younan's home village, Hassake -- the patriarch noted he "was born in Syria, where my parents found refuge after fleeing" Turkey. A delegation of 35 people came from Istanbul, Turkey.
Some 70 people came from Iraq, and numerous Iraqi flags were visible throughout the church.
Father ST Sutton, who served as secretary to Patriarch Younan while he was a bishop in the U.S., said the new patriarch is "very intelligent, very collegial and open-minded. And he has a great sense of humor."
"He is a prayerful man. The ultimate climax of his prayer life is the Eucharist," the priest said.
Father Sutton said Patriarch Younan has a keen sense of the universality of the church.
"If anything, he is a bridge-builder and a healer. He has no personal agenda except to unite and serve the Lord," said Father Sutton.
The priest said the patriarch's departure from the United States is "bittersweet" and that the faithful are awaiting a new bishop, scheduled to be selected during the July synod.
The Syriacs
| It shared the same history, ritual and language as the Syriac Orthodox Church until the XVIth century. At that time, under the action of the western missionaries notably the capuchins, and thanks to the Maronites, the "Union Movement, penetrated the Syriac church extensively. The Church took the name of Syriac Catholic when Ignatius Andre AKHIDJAN was elected patriarch in 1662. The union was not finalized until 1783. SITUATION IN LEBANON Bound to the complex history of the Antioch patriarchate, two communities of Syriac ritual deserve to be mentioned. An important fraction, indeed, of the Indies turned in the XVIIth century toward the Syriac Orthodox patriarchate of Antioch, and fell under its jurisdiction. Today it constitutes a semi-autonomous church, called Syriac Orthodox church of the Indies. In 1930, a part of this church passed to Catholicism, while keeping the Syriac ritual. It was named the Malankare church . The number of the faithfuls of the Syriacs Orthodox of the Indies is estimated to close to two million; the Catholic Malankare to half a million. |
Does anyone know anything about this man? Is he a conservative? Is he a fighter? Or is he a Rowan Williams kind of Christian?
In the recent lists posted here of vacant Stateside sees, observant readers have been quick to note that the tallies have failed to include the Syriac Catholic diocese for the US and Canada, Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark.Immediately following his enthronement, Patriarch Younan blessed the faithful as he was lifted three times in his chair.Beyond North Jersey's Syriac see, six Latin-rite churches on these shores await a new head, led by Mississippi's Katrina-hit diocese of Biloxi, vacated last April.
"Blessings ... long life," the faithful chanted in Arabic. Women in the choir ululated amid the cheers and applause.
Patriarch Younan said, "It is a great honor I don't deserve, but I put my whole trust in the one who said, 'You have not chosen me; I have chosen you.'"
Thanking those "who had traveled a great distance," the new patriarch praised "my dear friend," Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, "who truly was my father in the faith since my very beginning as a missionary priest then as bishop in the United States."
"With his fraternal support and solicitude, His Eminence allowed our small Syrian Catholic community in Newark, N.J., to grow in size and grace," he said. Cardinal McCarrick served as archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000....
Cardinal McCarrick, speaking in French, said Patriarch Younan was like a little brother "who I am proud to consider as my spiritual friend."
On the altar, Cardinal McCarrick sat alongside Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church.
Drawing cheers from the estimated 150 people who came from Syria -- some from Patriarch Younan's home village, Hassake -- the patriarch noted he "was born in Syria, where my parents found refuge after fleeing" Turkey. A delegation of 35 people came from Istanbul, Turkey.
Some 70 people came from Iraq, and numerous Iraqi flags were visible throughout the church.
Father ST Sutton, who served as secretary to Patriarch Younan while he was a bishop in the U.S., said the new patriarch is "very intelligent, very collegial and open-minded. And he has a great sense of humor."
"He is a prayerful man. The ultimate climax of his prayer life is the Eucharist," the priest said.
Father Sutton said Patriarch Younan has a keen sense of the universality of the church.
"If anything, he is a bridge-builder and a healer. He has no personal agenda except to unite and serve the Lord," said Father Sutton.
The priest said the patriarch's departure from the United States is "bittersweet" and that the faithful are awaiting a new bishop, scheduled to be selected during the July synod.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Since Saturday the heavy burden of the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate has been on the shoulders of Mar Ignace Youssef III Younan (pictured as bishop with John Paul II) after his consecration and enthronement in a solemn but exuberant religious ceremony that took place in Our Lady of the Annunciation Cathedral in Beirut’s Syriac neighbourhood.
The ceremony unfolded in the presence of the Maronite Patriarch, Nasrallah Cardinal Sfeir, and an ecumenical assembly of patriarchs, bishops and priests from most Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches, including the Patriarch of the Syro-Malankar community of India, Abhram Mar Julios. The Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr Luigi Gatti, and the Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, Mgr Theodore McCarrick, represented the western branch of the Church.
Surrounded by bishops of his community, the Patriarch made his way into the Church, head covered by a white veil. He moved forward among the lines of festive worshippers and remained behind the altar till the end of the religious service in accordance with a ritual that recalls Jesus’ retreat into the desert.
At the end of the Mass, he was enthroned by the bishops of his community, before whom he knelt and who laid their hands upon him.
Kneeling before the bishops, the new patriarch accepted his pastoral charge. When he said “I agree and accept” hundreds of faithful from Syria broke out in applause and shouts of joy.
The new patriarch then blessed the faithful from a chair lifted three times by members of the Synod, aided by young priests.
In his address at the end of the ceremony, the new patriarch thanked Cardinal McCarrick, who was his “spiritual father at the start of his service as a priest in the United States.”
Washington’s old Catholic bishop led the new patriarch’s ordination as the new bishop of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance in Newark, set up in 1995 for Syriac Catholics in the United States and Canada.
His speech’s epigraph read “I have become all things to all”, a quote from Saint Paul that reflects his concern to bring together members of his community, bishops and priests, scattered around the world, and reconcile his role as father and leader, holding together the “divergent outlooks and ideas that characterise people and institutions.”
Born in Syria, as a priest he took parish duties in Lebanon, in the same Syriac neighbourhood that is home to the church in which he became patriarch. Before he was elevated to the dignity of bishop he was a missionary in Canada and the United States, later becoming an apostolic visitor for Syriac Catholics in Central America.
Benedict XVI granted “ecclesiastic communion” to the new patriarch after he was elected at the helm of the Church of Antioch and all the East of the Syrians by the Synod held in Rome on 18-20 January past.
In his address the Pope invited the new patriarch and the Syriac Catholic Church to “sowers of peace, first of all in the Holy Land, Iraq and Lebanon, where the Syriac Church can claim a well-appreciated historical presence.”
“It is my wish to see that in the East, where the Gospel was announced, Christian communities may continue to live and bear witness to their faith as they have done over the centuries, keen on providing pastoral care to those who now live elsewhere so that they may remain fruitfully connected to their religious roots,” Benedict XVI added.
He is a priest ... not a politician.
Hahahaha...that’s a good one.
One does not often see the word “ululated.” I had to consult a dictionary.
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This event is good news.
Lol ... it's a way to show joy and excitement. Perhaps the closest we come close to this in the west would be yodeling ;-)
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