Melkite Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela

Melkite Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela (in Latin: Exarchatus Apostolicus Caracensis Graecorum Melkitarum, meaning - of Caracas) is a Melkite Greek Catholic Church missionary pre-diocesan jurisdiction or apostolic exarchate of the Catholic Church in Venezuela.

Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela (Melkite Greek)

Exarchatus Apostolicus Caracensis Graecorum Melkitarum
Location
CountryVenezuela
Ecclesiastical provinceImmediately exempt to the Holy See
Statistics
Population
- Catholics		(as of 2010)
25,000
Parishes5
Information
DenominationCatholic Church
Sui iuris churchMelkite Greek Catholic Church
RiteByzantine Rite
Established19 February 1990 (33 years ago)
CathedralCatedral San Jorge[1]
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
PatriarchYoussef Absi
ExarchJoseph Antoine Khawam, B.A.
Bishops emeritusGeorges Kahhalé Zouhaïraty, B.A.
Website
www.catedralsanjorge.org.ve

The apostolic exarchate is immediately exempt to the Holy See (notably the Congregation for the Oriental Churches) and not part of any (Melkite or Latin) ecclesiastical province, and encompasses the entirety of Venezuela.

The exarch's cathedral is the Cathedral of St. George, in the episcopal see and national capital city Caracas, which also has the see of the Latin metropolitan Archdiocese of Caracas, Santiago de Venezuela.

Territory and statistics

The apostolic exarchate extends to all the faithful of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Venezuela.

The territory is divided into five parishes and had 25,000 Melkite Catholics in 2010.

History

Melkite Catholic immigration in Venezuela, especially from Aleppo in Syria, dates back to the early decades of the twentieth century and intensified in particular between the two world wars.

In 1957 for the first time, a priest of the Society of the Missionaries of St. Paul, Gabriel Dick, took pastoral care of the Melkite community in the country.

The Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela was erected on 19 February 1990 with the papal bull Quo longius[2] of Pope John Paul II.[3][4]

Incumbent ordinaries

Conforming to the Eastern tradition, ordinaries are generally monks, so far all of the Basilian Aleppian Order (B.A.)

See also

References
  1. pgc-lb.org
  2. vatican.va
  3. "Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela (Melkite Greek)". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  4. "Greek-Melkite Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela". Giga Catholic. Retrieved 2013-04-19.

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