Curial Bishop of Antiochia (Maronite)
Curial Bishop Johanna Rafik El Warcha is identified in Arabic as Bishop Youhanna Rafic El Warcha. The Synod of Bishops of the Maronite Patriarchal Church elected Father Rafic El Warcha, secretary of the patriarchate and superior of the Monastery of Saint Doumit in Aaqaibe, as patriarchal vicar bishop, and Pope Francis granted him ecclesiastical communion. The new bishop succeeds Bishop Joseph Naffah, who had been transferred to the patriarchal vicariates of Joubbé and Ehden-Zgharta. His episcopal ordination was to be celebrated at the patriarchal see in Bkerké on Saturday, 7 April 2018, at five in the evening. A brief biography of the new bishop follows. He was born in Aaqaibe, Keserwan, on 22 October 1971. His parents are Jamil El Warcha and Ninat Kamel. He has one brother and three sisters, one of whom is Sister Juliet of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. He received his primary education at the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts School in Byblos and then his intermediate education at the Maronite Patriarchal Minor Seminary in Ghazir. He obtained a degree in philosophy and theology from the Pontifical Faculty of Theology at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in 1994, and a doctorate in moral theology from the Alphonsianum in Rome in 2005. He was ordained a priest on 17 August 1996 by the laying on of hands of Bishop Chucrallah Harb, former pastor of the Eparchy of Jounieh. He served as assistant in the parishes of Saint John the Baptist in Bqaq ed-Dine, Aaqaibe, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Haret Sakher, Jounieh, from 1996 to 2001. Bishop Antoine Nabil Andari, patriarchal vicar general for the Jounieh vicariate of the patriarchal eparchy, appointed him superior of the Monastery of Saint Doumit in Aaqaibe, a responsibility he still held at the time of the source text. In 2011, His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Rai appointed him secretary of the Maronite Patriarchate. He carried out catechesis and spiritual guidance at the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts School in Kfarhbab for ten years. He founded a center for adult Christian formation and health pastoral care at the Monastery of Saint Doumit in Aaqaibe. He was then a lecturer at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology at the Holy Spirit University in Kaslik, the Faculties of Family Sciences and Religious Sciences at Sagesse University in Beirut, and the Institute of Religious Sciences at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. The new Bishop El Warcha received congratulations on Friday and Saturday, 16-17 February of that year, from three in the afternoon until seven in the evening at the Monastery of Saint Doumit in Aaqaibe, Keserwan.