Referring to the Catholic Church as missionary may seem odd to some people. We don't think of the Church in terms of being missionary, yet we are. To refer to a Catholic diocese in North America as a "mission diocese" may even rest uneasily on some ears. But both statements are true: the Catholic Church is missionary and there are some dioceses in North America that are mission dioceses. The Church always proposes the eternal truth of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and that the Church He founded is His extension of love and mercy in history.
The presence of the Syriac Catholic Church in North America is a mission diocese (eparchy in church-speak when referencing an Eastern Catholic jurisdiction). The headquarters here is the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark.
NJ.com carried a story by Father Alexander Santora today, "Syriac Catholic bishop is a very busy man," covers a lot of ground in acquainting us with this particular Church which is not a mere rite, but fully in communion with the Bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI.
As a Catholic jurisdiction established by Pope John Paul II in 1995, with Bishop Joseph Younan as the first eparch --who has since 2009 been the Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church-- and now governed by Bishop Joseph Habash, 61, as the second bishop.
Most of the Syriac Catholics in North America exist in 18 parishes where faithful of the Syriac Catholic Church are recent immigrants of Iraqis and Syrians.
Bishop Joseph's motto ought to be shared by all of us, "Our mission is to venerate the heavenly values while at the same time sanctifying the earth in which we live."
Jesuit Father Steven Hawkes-Teeples has a primer on Eastern Christianity that you ought to read for more info: Eastern Christians and Their Churches.pdf
Leave a comment