By Baghdadhope
Source: Ankawa.com
The synod of the Syriac Catholic church that will elect the new patriarch will begin in Beirut on September 23.
On last January the seventy eight years old Mar Ignace Pierre VIII Abdel-Ahad resigned from the role of Patriarch of the Church of Antioch for Syriac Catholics he had since 2001.
According to the Vatican, pending the appointment of the new patriarch, the government of the church was given to a Episcopal Committee formed by S.E. Théophile Georges Kassab, Archbishop of Homs, Hama and Nabk of the Syriacs who also ruled the Patriarchal Eparchy, S.E. Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka, Archbishop of Baghdad and S.E. Gregorios Elias Tabé, Archbishop of Damascus.