SW News:

A Syriac Catholic priest who was once kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Syria has been chosen as the Archbishop of Homs. Pope Francis has ratified the decision of the Syriac Catholic Synod naming Fr Jacques Mourad as the new shepherd of the historic see. 

In 2015, Fr Mourad was under the custody of Islamist militants for five months after he was taken from the Mar Elian Monastery in Al Qaryatayn. After his release in 2016, he lived for a few years in the monasteries of Cori in Italy and Sulaymanyah in Kurdistan, Iraq, before relocating to Al Qaryatayn in Homs Archdiocese. 

Fr Mourad played a key role in reconstructing the historic monastery of Mar Elian where the relics of St Julian the martyr were once enshrined. The monastery, the chapel and the tomb of the saint were destroyed by the ISIS hordes. 

Last year, the chapel in Mar Elian monastery was rebuilt and it was reconsecrated by Archbishop Jihad Battah of the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Damascus in Syria in the presence of Archbishop Timotheos Matta el-Khoury of the Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese of Homs. The presence of both bishops was also seen as a sort of reconciliation between the two Churches which had a bitter conflict over the ownership of the monastery in the past. 

The ceremony was attended by many priests and believers from both Churches. Another major achievement of Fr Mourad was the solemn interring of the bones of St Julian on his feast day of September 9 in the restored sarcophagus. The relics were borne by two Christians and two Muslims from Qaryatayn. Once again, the bones of the saint had a dignified resting place. 

The Holy Father has also given his assent to the Synod’s decision to choose Fr Qusay Mubarak Abdullah Hano as the new archbishop of Mosul in Iraq. This city was the capital of the Islamic State. The archbishop-elect hails from the city of Qaraqosh in the Plains of Nineveh. When the Islamic State militants torched the archbishop’s curia and residence in Mosul, Fr Hano moved to Erbil to serve the displaced people. Now, he will succeed 

At the time of Isis, when jihadists burned down the episcope in Mosul, Fr. Hano was ministering to the displaced in Erbil. Now he will succeed Archbishop Emeritus Youhanna Boutros Moshe who led the believers of Mosul during the days of militant rule.