An Eastern Catholic patriarch said Monday that a meeting called for bishops of the Syriac Catholic Church to vote on his potential removal is unlawful.
In a statement released Sept. 28, Ignatius Youssef III Younan said that since he had already issued a convocation of the sui iuris Church’s synod, an attempt by Syriac bishops to meet in Lebanon this week lacks legal authority, as will any meeting they hold.
A special meeting of the Syriac bishops is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, September 29, having been called for by the senior bishop of the Church after the patriarch. It is the first attempted use of a new law, issued by Pope Leo XIV last month, giving the governing synods of bishops in Eastern Catholic Churches the authority to convene themselves and vote for the removal of patriarchal leaders.
Noting that both the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches and Pope Leo’s recent motu proprio recognize the patriarch’s right to be the first to call any meeting of the synod, Youssef said he had
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