Archbishop of Damas (Syrian)
The Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Church of Antioch of the Syrians has elected H.E. Msgr. Youhanna Jihad Battah, bishop of the Patriarchal Curia, as archbishop of Damascus. H.E. Msgr. Youhanna Jihad Battah H.E. Msgr. Youhanna Jihad Battah was born in Damascus on 26 June 1956. He attended the Saint-Esprit University of Kaslik in Lebanon, completing his studies in Rome where he was awarded a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in 1998. He was ordained a priest on 19 May 1991 for the archieparchy of Damascus, and exercised his ministry as parish priest in Quatana. From 1992 to 2002 he was rector of the Patriarchal Seminary of Charfet, and from 2002 to 2009, rector of the Pontifical Saint Efrem College in Rome, for Oriental Arab students. Upon returning to Damascus, he was appointed as protosyncellus. In 2011, the Holy Father granted Pontifical Assent to the election of Msgr. Battah as bishop of the Syriac Patriarchal Curia. Besides Arabic, he knows Italian, French and Syriac.