Archbishop of Adiabene (Syrian)
Bishop-elect Nizar Semaan was born in Qaraqosh, Iraq on 1 January 1965. After his primary and secondary studies he entered the patriarchal seminary of Charfet, Lebanon where, from 1986 to 1991, he completed his formation with studies at the Université Saint-Esprit in Kaslik, Lebanon. He was ordained a priest on 1 November 1991 in Qaraqosh for the archieparchy of Mosul. From 1991 to 1997 he served as parish vicar, first in Beyrouth and then in Qaraqosh. From 1997 to 2002 he studied at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in the liturgical section of the Faculty of Oriental Ecclesiastical Sciences. Since 2005 he has been responsible for the Syro-Catholic community in Great Britain. The Holy Father Francis, on 2 March 2019, granted Pontifical Assent to the canonical election, by the Synod of Syrian Bishops, of His Excellency Nizar Semaan as coadjutor archbishop of Mosul.