At noon on Friday, 19 September 2025, His Beatitude Ignatius Joseph III Younan, Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch, together with His Beatitude Moran Mor Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos, Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, presided over a session of the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. The gathering was held at the Bishop’s House of the Eparchy of Pathanamthitta, Kerala.
Present at the synod were the bishops of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, alongside the Patriarch’s delegation which included Most Rev. Barnaba Joseph Habash, Most Rev. Ephrem Joseph Abba, Monsignor Habib Mourad, and Rev. Fr. Karim Kalash.
In his address of welcome, the Catholicos spoke with deep affection and gratitude:
“It is truly a great honour to have among us His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III, together with his distinguished delegation from the Syriac Catholic and Maronite Churches. Your predecessors shared many bonds with us, beginning with Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II Rahmani of blessed memory, who aided Mar Ivanios in securing recognition of our Church. In the same spirit, Your Beatitude strengthens us within the Catholic communion, affirming our identity and our Syriac heritage. We admire your courage in shepherding a Church that suffers persecution and displacement, and we draw strength from your witness of hope, as the Holy Father Pope Francis reminds us: to live as pilgrims of hope.”
The Catholicos reflected on the long history of collaboration between the Syriac Catholic and Malankara Churches, recalling their shared labours in the United States, the Patriarch’s previous visits to Kerala, and the enduring ties of the Antiochene tradition. He concluded by thanking the Patriarch for his presence, his prayers, and his steadfast encouragement.
In reply, the Patriarch expressed heartfelt thanks for the warm welcome and the words of fraternity:
“Our Churches are united by faith and by the Antiochene heritage. St. Ignatius of Antioch, whose name I bear, was the first to call the Church ‘Catholic’, more than two centuries before the Council of Nicaea. His letters, his teaching, and his martyrdom remind us that we are one Church, even if history has brought divisions. Today we must carry the hope that our Malankara Church, in communion with Rome, will flourish as a living witness among the Churches of the East. Together we bear the weight of testimony, whether in the Middle East or here in India, trusting that the Lord who promised never to abandon His Church will sustain us.”
The session continued with fraternal discussion and the treatment of synodal matters in an atmosphere of mutual love and respect. At the conclusion, the Patriarch imparted his Apostolic Blessing to the Catholicos, the synod fathers, and the entire Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, in a moment filled with profound emotion and spiritual consolation.
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