OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 23 JAN 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father granted the ecclesial communion requested of him by His Beatitude Ignace Youssif III Younan, canonically elected as patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians by the Synod of Bishops of the Syriac Catholic Church, which met in Rome from 18 to 20 January. The new patriarch was born in Hassake, Syria in 1944, he was ordained a priest in 1971 and consecrated a bishop in 1995.
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