By Josh McDermid
In the last two years Corpus Christi College has been fortunate to have Eastern Catholic seminarians, with two seminarians from the Syro-Malabar community and one from the Syriac Catholic Church. Last Wednesday, our Syriac Catholic student, Yousif Alkateb, brought two guests to meet our seminary community: Monsignor Fadhel Al Qas Ashaq, the pastor to Melbourne’s approximately 1000 Syriac Catholic families, and Bishop Georges Casmoussa, the Apostolic Visitor to Australia and New Zealand.
After praying Vespers, our guests also joined us for dinner, preceded by Bishop Casmoussa leading us in praying the Lord’s Prayer in the Syriac language. After dinner, Bishop Casmoussa, provided us with an informative speech, the first he had ever given in English. He explained to us the history of the Syriac Catholic Church, including how Christianity in this part of the world had divided from Rome over the teaching that Christ had two natures and then returned to full communion many centuries later. He also spoke about his home diocese of Mosul in Iraq, their patriarch who resides in Beirut, Lebanon, and the differences between the West and East Syriac Rites.
Finally, Bishop Casmoussa gave us some insight into the Syriac Catholic community in Melbourne, with many of its members having fled Iraq after the jihadist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, took control of Mosul and other parts of the country. He also spoke of the blessing of having Yousif as a seminarian and thanked us for welcoming him.
(Left to Right): Yousif Alkateb, Bishop Georges Casmoussa, Father Cameron Forbes and Monsignor Fadhel Al Qas Ashaq.