At half past four in the morning on Thursday, 18 September 2025, His Beatitude Ignatius Joseph III Younan, Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch, reached the Catholicate Centre of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in Trivandrum, Kerala, where he will reside as a guest during his fifth Apostolic Visit to our sister Church.
At the entrance of the Catholicate, he was received with heartfelt warmth by His Beatitude Moran Mor Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos, Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. The Catholicos was surrounded by priests, deacons, and religious sisters, who joined in extending their joyous welcome to the Patriarch.
Accompanying the Patriarch were Most Rev. Barnaba Joseph Habash, Most Rev. Ephrem Joseph Abba, and Monsignor Habib Mourad.
Immediately after the reception, the Patriarch, together with the Catholicos, bishops, clergy, deacons, and sisters, entered the Chapel of St. Thomas the Apostle within the Catholicate Centre. There, His Beatitude lifted a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord for granting him safe arrival in Trivandrum. He prayed for the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church—its Catholicos, bishops, clergy, and faithful—as well as for the entire Church and for peace throughout the world.
Following this time of prayer, the Catholicos and the clergy expressed their heartfelt joy and fraternal delight at the Patriarch’s visit. Afterwards, the Patriarch retired to his residence in the Catholicate Centre, in preparation for the beginning of the formal programme of this fifth Apostolic Visit, which commences later in the day.
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