North Americans to participate in Synod of Bishops for Middle East

SYNOD-NAMERICAN Oct-8-2010 (340 words) xxxi

North Americans to participate in Synod of Bishops for Middle East

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Of the 185 voting members of the special Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, 12 are bishops who minister in the United States and Canada.

Like the synod membership as a whole, most of the North American participants are bishops of the Eastern Catholic churches: Melkite, Maronite, Chaldean, Syrian, Armenian or Coptic.

The full list of participants in the Oct. 10-24 synod was released at the Vatican Oct. 8 during a press briefing by Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.

Pope Benedict XVI named Msgr. Robert L. Stern, general secretary of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, to be a voting member of the synod.

And three Latin-rite bishops from North America are participating: Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit, and Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto.

More North American participants are involved because of their ministry in Rome. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is a synod member, as are Cardinal John P. Foley, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, and Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature.

The other North American members of the synod are:

-- Syrian Bishop Yousif Habash of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark, N.J.

-- Melkite Bishop Ibrahim M. Ibrahim of Saint-Sauveur of Montreal.

-- Melkite Bishop Cyrille S. Bustros of Newton, Mass.

-- Maronite Bishop Joseph Khoury of Saint-Maron of Montreal.

-- Maronite Bishop Robert J. Shaheen of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles.

-- Maronite Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of St. Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y.

-- Chaldean Bishop Sarhad Y. Jammo of St. Peter the Apostle of San Diego.

-- Chaldean Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of St. Thomas the Apostle of Detroit.

-- Armenian Bishop Manuel Batakian of Our Lady of Nareg in New York.

Benedictine Father Mark Sheridan, a U.S. member of the International Association for Coptic Studies, was named an expert at the synod.

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