Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Aleppo explained

Jurisdiction:Eparchy
Aleppo (Chaldean)
Latin:Eparchia Aleppensis Chaldaeorum
Country:Syria
Population As Of:2012
Catholics:30,000[1]
Parishes:14
Denomination:Chaldean Catholic Church
Rite:East Syriac Rite
Established:1957
Patriarch:Louis Raphael I Sako
Bishop:Antoine Audo
Bishop Title:Eparch
Suffragan:for one -->
Archdeacon:for one-->

The Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Aleppo (also Halab in Arabic, or Beroa as in Antiquity) is the only eparchy (Eastern Catholic diocese) of the Chaldean Catholic Church (which uses the Syro-Oriental Rite, in Syriac or Aramaic languages) in Syria.

Territory and statistics

The eparchy extends its jurisdiction over the faithful of the Chaldean Catholic Church of Syria. It is directly subject to the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon (actually in Baghdad, Iraq), not part of any ecclesiastical province.

Its cathedral episcopal see is the St. Joseph's Cathedral, in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria.

The territory is divided into 14 parishes.

History

A colony of Chaldean Christians was certainly present in Aleppo in the early 16th century, most probably from the city of Diyarbakır in Upper Mesopotamia. In 1723 the Chaldean patriarch Joseph III obtained from the Ottoman government a firman who recognized his jurisdiction over the Chaldean faithful of the city.However, the number of the Chaldean faithful remained always reduced; at the beginning of the twentieth century the community included only 250 people. In 1901, however, Pope Leo XIII authorized the institution of a patriarchal vicariate, directly dependent on the patriarch.

The eparchy was erected on July 3, 1957, with the bull Almost pastor[2] of Pope Pius XII, with which the pontiff suppressed the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Gazireh of the Chaldeans and established the new ecclesiastical circumscription.

Episcopal ordinaries

(all Chaldean Rite)

Exempt Eparch (Bishop) of Syria
Exempt Eparchs (Bishops) of Aleppo

Sources

36.1833°N 37.15°W

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dalpc.html catholic-hierarchy.org
  2. Bolla Quasi pastor, AAS 50 (1958), p. 249