Syriac Church synod becomes first to challenge patriarch under new papal reform

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.

Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan. Credit: Wikimedia via Flickr. CC BY SA 2.0

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 can convene a meeting to vote for the removal of the patriarch or major archbishop of an Eastern Church if they were found to have caused “irreparable damage” to the communion of Church.

According to Leo’s new law on the subject, a synodal meeting to remove an Eastern Catholic patriarch should be called by the senior bishop of the synod who is in favor of removal. A two-thirds majority of the voting members of the synod, usually the diocesan bishops of the Eastern Catholic Church, is required to effect the removal, and the pope must confirm a removal decision.

While the law does not define legal criteria for defining or establishing the alleged irreparable damage to internal communion, it does require that the patriarch be allowed to defend himself before the synod.

In the Syriac Catholic Church, the bishops are expected to convene in late September or early October for a meeting that could involve deposing the patriarch, although Youssif’s own move to call for a synod would see them instead gather in November.

Patriarch Youssif, 81, has led the Syriac Catholic Church since 2009, his formal title is Patriarch of Antioch and All the East of the Syrians.

Dissatisfaction among Syriac bishops has reportedly centered around Youssif’s refusal to convene governing synodal meetings for the Eastern Catholic Church, despite repeated requests from bishops over the past three years. That likely explains the patriarch’s decision to convene a synod in response to the call for his prospective removal. But sources close to the Syriac Church have told The Pillar that a patriarchal call for a synod now is likely to be seen as “too late,” among broad episcopal frustration with Youssif.

There are some 160,000 members of the Syriac Catholic Church, with the majority living in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. Roughly 16,000 Syriac Catholics live in the United States, worshipping in the 11 parishes of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance.