Apostolic Vicariate of Aleppo

Apostolic Vicariate of Aleppo
Location
Country Syria
Statistics
Parishes 10
Information
Rite Latin Rite
Cathedral Child Jesus
Current leadership
Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, OFM
Former Latin Cathedral of Aleppo, dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi.

The Apostolic Vicariate of Aleppo (in Latin: Vicariatus Apostolicus Aleppensis) is an apostolic vicariate of the Roman Catholic Church and is immediately subject to the Holy See. In 2010 there were 13,000 baptized. It is currently ruled by the bishop Georges Abou Khazen, OFM.

Territory

The Apostolic Vicariate extends its jurisdiction over the Catholics of the Latin Rite of Syria. The seat of the vicariate is the city of Aleppo, where the Cathedral of the Child Jesus, was opened by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri on 15 January 2011.[1]

The territory is divided into 10 parishes.

History

From the early decades of the seventeenth century some religious orders, particularly the Order of the Friars Minor Capuchin, the Carmelites and the Society of Jesus, settled in Syria and Aleppo. There were several conversions to Catholicism of the Latin rite, and this led Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to establish a diocese in Aleppo.

A first attempt to build an apostolic vicariate was in 1645. On 31 July 1645 was appointed bishop the Franciscan Giovanni Battista Dovara, which, however, "that he had achieved such a dignity, otherwise do not bother to go to his residence, despite the replicated excitations that he was moved by the Holy Congregation. Nor from that time on he was thought to depute a Latin bishop in that city".[2]:300 The vicariate so he died in the bud: the jurisdiction of the Latin returned to the custodian of the Holy Land, as it was previously.

The apostolic vicariate was erected a second time on June 27, 1762, when Pope Clement XIII appointed the Congregation of the Mission member Frenchman Arnaud Bossu, who had been vicar apostolic to Algiers. In a Papal brief,[3] Bossu receives the title of Vicar Apostolic of Aleppo, with jurisdiction over the Eastern Europeans and the Latin Rite of the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem, including the Maronite and Armenian patriarchates. The vicar, however, did not put his residence in Aleppo, but Antoura in Lebanon, and never received episcopal consecration. Also on this occasion, the vicariate was short-lived due to the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 and the French Revolution, which, among other consequences, involved the removal of all religious orders not only in motherland, but also in mission lands.

After the Congress of Vienna, Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples restored the apostolic vicariate in 1817, with the name of the Apostolic vicariate of Syria, Egypt, Arabia and Cyprus. It had jurisdiction over much of Catholic missions of the central and southern regions of the Ottoman Empire, namely: Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Abyssinia (Ethiopia and Eritrea) and Nubia (Sudan). Also included the south-central part of Anatolia, including the cities of Antioch (Antakya) and Alexandretta (Iskenderun).

In 1839 it ceded part of its territory for the creation of the apostolic vicariate of Egypt and Arabia (today the Apostolic Vicariate of Alexandria of Egypt) and the Prefecture Apostolic of Abyssinia (today Ethiopian Catholic Archeparchy of Addis Abeba in the Ethiopian rite), and simultaneously took the name of the Vicariate Apostolic of Aleppo.

On October 4, 1847 ceded Palestine, Cyprus and the areas corresponding to the current Jordan for the restoration of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem of the Latins.

With the end of the Ottoman Empire, the birth of modern Turkey (1923) and especially with the passage of Hatay from Syria to Turkey (1938), under the Papal bull of Pope Pius XII Ad maius christifidelium of 5 October 1939 and Quo sacrorum of 9 December 1939, the Vicariate Apostolic of Aleppo lost the Turkish territories that passed to the Apostolic Vicariate of Istanbul.

On June 4, 1953 it gave another portion of territory for the creation of the Apostolic Vicariate of Beirut. From this moment the Vicariate Apostolic of Aleppo geographically corresponding to the Arab republic of Syria's territory. Only from this territorial change, the apostolic vicars have permanent residence in Aleppo, preferring previously reside in Lebanon.

The apostolic vicars are by law members of the Conference of the Latin Bishops of the Arab Regions.

Apostolic Vicars of Aleppo

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ Leonardus Lemmens, Hierarchia latina Orientis, mediante S. Congregatione de propaganda fide instituita (1622-1922), in Orientalia Christiana, vol. IV, n° 10 (1924), pp. 296-301
  3. ↑

External links

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