The ancient church of Egypt, the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria, will welcome Rev. Thomas Esam William and Rev. Ayoub Matta Usama Shafik Akhnoukh as their new bishop. The Synod of Bishops of the church reportedly elected the two clerics.
New Bishops of Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria
Since the first century, there have been Christian communities established in Egypt. The Apostle Mark himself was responsible for bringing Christianity to the region. Around 10% of Egyptians currently identify as members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which was once the dominant religious group in Egypt.
During the modern era, several adherents of Coptic Orthodox Christianity established the church by entering into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. There are ten eparchies (or dioceses) of the church in Egypt and a tiny diaspora outside the country.
The Vatican News reported that Rev. Thomas Esam William Bolos Faragalla would be ordained as the bishop of the eparchy of Al Qusia. On the other hand, Rev. Ayoub Matta Usama Shafik Akhnoukh will be elevated to the position of bishop of Assiut.
In the eparchy of Assiut, where he serves as the cathedral's parish priest, Father Faragalla also holds the position of protosyncellus, which translates to "assistant to the bishop." He received his education for the priesthood at the Patriarchal Seminary in Maadi, Cairo, and was ordained in the year 1995 after having been born in Al Qusia in 1967. After receiving his ordination, he served in several parishes across Egypt. He then moved to Paris for a year and became the spiritual leader of the city's Coptic Catholic community. In addition to the language he was born speaking, he is fluent in French, Italian, and English.
Moreover, 1971 marks the year that Father Akhnoukh was born in the city of Assiut. Before entering the seminary, he earned a degree in Social Work from the university. His ordination as a priest took place in 2002. He began his ministry in Egypt before moving on to serve the Coptic community in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, as a parish priest. He is fluent in Arabic, English, and French and serves as the director of the office of Human Development for the Eparchy of Assiut.
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Brief History of the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria
According to Wikiwand, the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria is the Patriarchal and sole Metropolitan see of the head of the Eastern sui iuris Coptic Catholic Church, a particular Church within the Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See that observes the Alexandrian Rite in its native Coptic language. As a result, he holds the position of the supreme bishop over all Coptic dioceses, most of which are found in and around Egypt since that is where all of the church's sees are located. The term "Coptic" is a corruption of the Greek word for Egyptian.
It has two cathedral archbishopric sees, both of which are located in Egypt: one is dedicated to Our Lady of Egypt and is located in Cairo, the nation's capital. The other one is located in Ancient Alexandria and is devoted to the resurrection.
As per the New Advent, Saint Mark the Evangelist established the Church of Alexandria due to the unchanging tradition of the East and the West and was the center of Christianity throughout Egypt. Approximately 108 bishops were included within its jurisdiction during its most prosperous period. Its territory encompassed the six provinces of Thebaid, Egypt, Acadia (or Heptapolis), Upper Libya, Lower Libya (or Pentapolis), and Augustamnica.
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The Synod of Bishops of the Coptic Catholic Church has elected two new hierarchs: Fr Thomas Esam William Bolos Faragalla will be consecrated bishop of the eparchy of Al Qusia, while Fr Ayoub Matta Usama Shafik Akhnoukh will become bishop of Assiut.
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) April 1, 2023
https://t.co/8vsivob227
