SW News: Finally, the Armenian Catholic Church has a new patriarch. The Synod of Bishops that met in Rome earlier this week has elected His Beatitude Raphael Francois Minassian as the 21st Catholicos-Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenian Catholic Church which is one of the 23 sui iuris Oriental Churches in communion with Rome.

Archbishop Minassian succeeds the late Patriarch Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan, who died in May, and he has assumed the name of Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian. He is the titular archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia of the Armenians and the Bishop of the Armenian Catholic faithful of Eastern Europe.

The first round of election that was held in Beirut, Lebanon, earlier ended in a fiasco as no candidate got a two-thirds majority. So, as per Canon Law, the Synod had to be convened by the pope to elect a new patriarch.

The patriarch-elect was born on November 24, 1946, in Beirut. He completed his priestly studies at the Patriarchal Seminary of Bzommar, the Pontifical Gregorian University, and the Salesian Pontifical University. He was ordained a priest of the Patriarchal Clergy Institute in Bzommar on June 24, 1973. He also served as Rector of the Armenian Cathedral in Beirut from 1973 to 1982 and was secretary to Patriarch Hovannes Bedros XVIII Kasparian. He moved to the US in 1989 and served as the pastor for the Armenian Catholics in California, Arizona, and Nevada until 2003.

Archbishop Raphaël was appointed as the Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem and Amman for the Armenians in 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI. From 2011 he served as the Bishop for the Armenian Catholics in Eastern Europe. The new patriarch also hosted Pope Francis during his Apostolic Journey to Armenia.