The Syriac Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela is a Syriac Catholic Church missionary ecclesiastical territory or

apostolic exarchate An exarch (; from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'', meaning “leader”) was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical. In the late Roman Empire and e ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. It is exempt directly to the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

(specifically the

Roman Congregation for the Oriental Churches The Dicastery for the Eastern Churches (also called Dicastery for the Oriental Churches), previously named Congregation for the Oriental Churches or Congregation for the Eastern Churches ( la, Congregatio pro Ecclesiis Orientalibus), is a dicaste ...

) and not part of any

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of seve ...

. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

is the Catedral Católica Siria de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (dedicated to the

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by ...

), in the episcopal see of

Maracay ) , image_skyline = , image_caption =Top:Maracay Municipal Garden and Las Delicias area, Second: Sindoni Tower, Los Tamarindo residential area and overview to Maracay, Third:Maestranza Cesar Giron Bullring Stadium, Girardot Square and Maraca ...

Aragua Aragua State ( es, Estado Aragua, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains and jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first n ...

, Venezuela.

History

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

established the Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela for Syriac Catholics on 22 June 2001.

Ordinaries

* Denys Antoine Chahda (28 June 2001 – 13 September 2001), later Archeparch (Archbishop) of

Aleppo of the Syriacs The Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo (informally Aleppo of the Syrians) is a Syriac Catholic Church ecclesiastical territory or archeparchy of the Catholic Church in Syria. The Archeparchy of Aleppo is not a metropolitan see and is exempti ...

(Syria) (2001.09.13 – ...) * Iwannis Louis Awad (17 May 2003 – retired 1 March 2011), emeritate as

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox ...

Zeugma in Syria Zeugma may refer to: *Zeugma and syllepsis, figures of speech * Zeugma (Commagene), an ancient settlement in Commagene (eastern Anatolia) * Zeugma (Dacia), an ancient settlement in Dacia, mentioned by Ptolemy * ''Zeugma'' (literary journal), a p ...

(2003.05.17 – ...) * Timoteo Hikmat Beylouni (1 March 2011 – ...), Titular Bishop of

Sabrata Sabratha ( ar, صبراتة, Ṣabrāta; also ''Sabratah'', ''Siburata''), in the Zawiya DistrictRoman Catholicism in Venezuela The Catholic Church in Venezuela is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The Roman Catholic Church in Venezuela comprises nine archdioceses, three vicariates, a military ordinariate, and two ...

References

Sources and external links

GCatholic with incumbent biography links

Eastern Catholic dioceses in Venezuela Syrian diaspora in South America Arab Venezuelan Christian organizations established in 2001 Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 21st century 2001 establishments in Venezuela Maracay {{Venezuela-RC-diocese-stub