Rt. Rev Arch Mark Melone Protodn. Bryan McNeil Dn. John MacMillan Dn. Ziad Layous Eparchy of the Melkite Patriachate Patriachate of Antioch Australia Brazil Venezuela Argentina Mexico France Belgium Italy London United Kingdom Gilbert-Joseph Gallant
The Eparchy of Venezuela
History: The emigration of Syrians, and particularly of Aleppines, which began timidly before the first World War, was intensified at the end of it, only to slow down after 1930. The new-found wealth of Venezuala due to the oil discovered there was in no small way responsible for this phenomenon. Many Aleppine families have settled in the country, with every intention of staying. The number of Christians who emigrated from Aleppo is more or less equal to the number who remained there.
The different communities are represented in almost the same proportion as in their home town. As is well known, of all the Catholic communities in Aleppo, the Greek Catholic is the largest. No doubt it was because of this that, with the agreement of the Latin Archbishop of Caracas, the immigrants in 1957 asked the Greek Catholic Patriarch to give them a priest to minister all the Christians of Aleppine origin living in Venezuala, and in their petition they insisted that the priest should himself be from Aleppo.
From 1958 to 1970 it was Fr. Gabriel Dick, an Aleppine of the Society of Missionaries of St Paul, who looked after the mission. He lost no time buying a house, an old one but spacious enough to serve as a temporary church, while awaiting something better. He added a school, which might have been further expanded if only the premises had been more capacious. Apostolic Exarchate of Venezuela
Catedral San Jorge: Credits: Rev. Padre : Nakhleh Zakham
E-mail: http://www.mliles.com/melkite/nzakhm@hotmail.com
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