More than nine years after the kidnapping of mar Yohanna Ibrahim, a successor has been appointed, the monk Boutros Kassis who had already been appointed patriarchal vicar of the long-suffering community in 2019. Last year, the Greek Orthodox had made a similar decision for the another prelate kidnapped in 2013.
Aleppo () – The Syrian Orthodox Church has officially appointed a new archbishop in Aleppo as successor to Yohanna Ibrahim, kidnapped on April 22, 2013 along with the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Boulos Yaziji when they returned from Turkey to Syria, in one of the moments darkest of war. There has been no further news of them.
The Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church Ignatius Ephrem II confirmed the Synod’s election, unanimously, of the new Archbishop of Aleppo Boutros Kassis. According to a note released by the patriarchate, the decision was made after a meeting of the Patriarch with priests, members of religious councils and heads of commissions and ecclesiastical institutions of the diocese of Aleppo.
Boutros Kassis, 47, had already held the post of patriarchal assistant since October 2019 with the specific post of vicar for Aleppo. The continuity of the forced to recognize the need for a new permanent pastor for the local Syro-Catholic community and on July 27 the seat was officially declared vacant.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch had taken a similar step in October 2021 by appointing Metropolitan Efrem Maalouli to the see of Aleppo, which had been without an archbishop since the kidnapping of Boulos Yaziji.
The new Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Boutros Kassis studied electronic engineering at the University of Aleppo, before devoting himself to theological studies in Sednaya and later in Thessaloniki.
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