Eastern Church: August 2012 Archives

Maronite Archbishop Youssef Anis Abi-Aad (left) said his residence and a local Christian museum were ransacked destroying personal and professional affects including icons.

Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart (right) and some of his priests went to Lebanon in the face of violence.

It is reported that Christians make up about 7.5 to 10% of the Syrian 20 million population.

Both Maronite and Melkite Churches are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome.

We pray,

Father Mark is a longtime friend, and I rejoice in his selection. A brilliant choice! CUA could use a deeper appreciation for the Christian East and with Mark, perhaps they'll get it.

Perhaps Father Mark's appointment will be an opportunity for all the Eastern Churches in the USA to send their seminarians to CUA for their theological education. The Maronites and Ukrainian Byzantines already do so; can the Melkites and Reuthenians do likewise? No sense in being too provincial, is there?

The National Catholic Register carries an interview with Father Mark here.

May the Holy Theotokos guide Father Mark's work for Christ and the Church.

The Coptics are preparing to elect the 118th successor of Saint Mark. The list of 17 possible choices is being scrutinized now; the more than 2500 electors have been gleaned from the clergy and laity alike.

The New Jersey eparchy (diocese) for the Coptic Orthodox has introductory material to read. The US doesn't have a large group of Coptic Orthodox in comparison to the Greek Orthodox Church or Catholicism --let alone the Coptic Catholics, for that matter-- but the Church is growing. Worldwide there are 18 million adherents. In the Tri-State area there are some 19 communities of the Coptic Orthodox faithful. For example, the Copts purchased the former Benedictine abbey of Corpus Christi in Texas for a monastery of their own.

Catholics have a keen interest in the Coptic Church because of the role she has played in the forming Catholic faith across the many centuries.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church will also have to elect a new leader, the 6th patriarch, with the death of Abune Paulos yesterday. He served as head of his Church since 1992.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church Church established themselves as separate from the Coptic Church in 1959 and claims 45 million faithful.