Nerses Bedros XIX
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Nerses Bedros XIX |
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Nerses Bedros XIX was born in Cairo, Egypt on January 17, 1940, the fifth of eight children, is the current patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church. He completed his primary and secondary studies at the College of the Brothers of Christian Schools (Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes) in Cairo.
He felt the vocation to priesthood very early in life and thus was sent to the Armenian Leonian Pontifical College of Rome in 1958 where he studied Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. His Bishop, Msgr. Raphael Bayan, ordained him priest in Cairo on 15 August 1965.
He served the parish of the Catholic Armenian Cathedral of the Annunciation in Cairo from 1965 to 1968 with the Reverend Father John Kasparian (who became Patriarch Catholicos under the name of John Peter XVIII Kasparian in 1982). From 1968 to 1990, he was curate of the parish of St. Therese of Heliopolis in Cairo, where he encouraged the new ecclesial realities that sprung from Vatican II, especially the Neocatechumenal Way.
On the February 18, 1990, he was ordained bishop of the Eparchy (Diocese) of Alexandria for Egypt and Sudan by the imposition of the hands of His Beatitude Jean Pierre XVIII.
From 1992 to 1997, as member of the Catholic Hierarchy of Egypt, he was the General Secretary of the Pastoral Council of the Catholic Church of Egypt.
As a member of the Synod of the Bishops of the Catholic Armenian Patriarch Church, he was successful in being:
- Member of the Council of the three Bishops to direct the Patriarchal Curie from 1993 to 1995.
- President of the Patriarchal Commission for the Vocations from 1993 to 1995.
- Member of the Permanent Synod as of 1994.
In October 1999, he was elected by the Bishops of the Holy Synod of the Catholic Armenian Synod, Patriarch Catholicos of Cilicia for the Catholic Armenians and took the name of Nerses Bedros XIX.
