Youssef Absi ''Società dei Missionari di San Paolo'' – Missionary Society of St. Paul (Melkite Greek); se

(; ; born 20 June 1946, in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

) is the current

patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

of the

Melkite Greek Catholic Church The Melkite Greek Catholic Church (, ''Kanīsat ar-Rūm al-Malakiyyīn al-Kāṯūlīk''; ; ), also known as the Melkite Byzantine Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catho ...

, serving since 21 June 2017.

Ecclesiastical career

On May 6, 1973, Youssef Absi was ordained a priest and became chaplain of the Missionary Society of St. Paul (Italian: '' Società dei Missionari di San Paolo''; abbreviated as S.M.S.P.), a Melkite Greek

Society of Apostolic Life A society of apostolic life is a group of men or women within the Catholic Church who have come together for a specific purpose and live fraternally. It is regarded as a form of consecrated (or "religious") life. This type of organization ...

that is also known as the ''Pères Paulistes''. After the conclusion of philosophical and theological studies at the Major Seminary of St. Paul in

Harissa, Lebanon Harissa-Daraoun () is a municipality that consists of two villages, Harissa and Daraoun, in the Keserwan District of the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The municipality mayor from 2016 until 2022 is Mr. Nizar Chemaly. The municipality ...

, he obtained a licentiate in philosophy at the

Lebanese University The Lebanese University (LU; ) is the only state-funded public university in Lebanon. It was established in 1951. The university's main campus was originally located in Beirut, but a few satellite campuses were opened due to travel restriction ...

, a licentiate in theology at the Institute of St. Paul in Harissa, and a doctorate in musical science and hymnography at the

Holy Spirit University of Kaslik The Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK; , ''Jāmiʿah al-Rūḥ al-Quddus – al-Kaslīk'') is a private, non-profit, Catholic university in Jounieh, Lebanon. The university was founded by the Baladites in 1950 and ratified under the new ...

. On June 22, 2001, he was appointed

titular archbishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Tarsus dei Greco-Melkiti and curial bishop and auxiliary bishop in the Melkite Patriarchate. Patriarch

Gregory III Laham Gregory III Laham, B.S. (; ; born Lutfy Laham, December 15, 1933, in Darayya, Syria), Emeritus Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and Jerusalem, is the former spiritual leader of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. He was elec ...

was his consecrator, and the co-consecrators were Archbishop Jean Mansour, titular archbishop of Apamea in Syria dei Greco-Melkiti, and Archbishop

Joseph Kallas Joseph Kallas, SMSP (born September 24, 1931) is Archbishop Emeritus of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Beirut and Byblos. Biography Kallas was born, in Fakiha, Lebanon. He was ordained a priest on 13 August 1958 by the White Fathers, a ...

, Archeparch of Beirut and Byblos, on September 2, 2001. From 1999 to 2006, he was

Superior General A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of an 'order' of religious persons (nuns, priests, friars, etc) or, in other words, of a 'religious institute' in the Catholic Church, and in some other Christian denominations. The super ...

of his religious community, the Missionary Society of St. Paul. He assisted as co-consecrator at the episcopal ordination of Yasser Ayyash, Archbishop of Petra and Philadelphia in Jordan. In October 2007, he was appointed patriarchal vicar for the archdiocese of Damascus. He was elected on June 21, 2017, as the patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. His election came a month after

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

accepted the resignation of Gregory III Laham.

Other activities

In 2001, he became president of the Caritas Syria (''Commission Commune de Bienfaisance'' (CCB)) and forwards with three full-time members more than 40 projects in Damascus, Aleppo and Hassake. He composed for the singer

Marie Keyrouz Sister Marie Keyrouz (also spelled "Kairouz") (; born 1963) is a Lebanese chanter of Oriental Church music, a member of the Congrégation des Soeurs Basiliennes Chouérites and founder-president of the National Institute of Sacred Music in Paris. ...

"L'Ensemble de la Paix", a hymn that was released on the album ''Cantiques de l'Orient''.

On the Middle East

As a participant in the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East in October 2010, he gave an address in which he insisted that: "The Episcopal Conferences of each country should meet from time to time together. You should allow bi-ritualism, so that no parish remains without divine liturgy, no matter what church it belongs to."vaticanhistory.de
Quote translated from German.

Gallery

File:Jusszef Abszi damaszkuszi melkita puspokkel.jpg, With Péter Fülöp Kocsis in June 2017

References

External links