Armenian Catholics in Iraq get new archbishop after five-year vacancy

Published: 2007-01-26

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For the first time in more than five years, the tiny Armenian Catholic community in Iraq has its own archbishop. The Vatican announced Jan. 26 that Pope Benedict XVI had given his assent to the Armenian Catholic bishops' election of Father Emmanuel Dabbaghian, 73, as the Armenian Catholic archbishop of Baghdad. The post had been vacant since the October 2001 retirement of Archbishop Paul Coussa at the age of 84. The Armenian Catholic Archdiocese of Baghdad covers all of Iraq, and since 2001 Vatican statistics have given the Armenian Catholic population of the country as 2,000 faithful. Archbishop-elect Dabbaghian was born Dec. 26, 1933, in Aleppo, Syria. After studying philosophy and theology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1967. He has served as director of an orphanage in Lebanon, as a seminary rector and as pastor of Armenian parishes in Lebanon and in Georgia.

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