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The Syriac Catholic Church has become the first Eastern Church sui iuris to initiate a process to depose its patriarch, following the promulgation of canonical reforms by Pope Leo XIV on Aug. 29.

The senior bishop of the Eastern Church’s synod of bishops initiated the process for a vote to remove the patriarch Patriarch Ignace Youssif III Younan on September 4, just days after Pope Leo XIV issued the motu proprio Mutua concordia, allowing for the prospect of Eastern Catholic bishops moving to remove their patriarchs.

According to a report in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, the patriarch has responded to the process by calling a meeting of the Church’s synod, setting up the first test of the new canonical process and likely clearing the way for Roman intervention.

The papal motu proprio amended the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, the body of canon law which applies to all the 23 Eastern Churches in communion with Rome, in addition to their individual governing laws.

The reform created a mechanism by which the bishops of an Eastern Church’s synod

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