Michel Abrass
Michel Abrass, BA (born on 14 December 1948 in Aleppo, Syria) is the current Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre.[1]
Seminarian
Michel Abrass was born in Aleppo, Syria. In 1973 he gained a Bachelor in Philosophy at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik and then he completed his priestly formation at the seminary of the Basilians. In 1980 Abrass concluded his studies in philosophy, theology and liturgy, with the conclusion in the liturgy.
Church career
Michel Abrass was ordained a priest on April 11, 1981 and is a member of the Aleppinian Basilians. On 17 October 2006, Pope Benedict XVI made the adjustment to the Melkite Synod choice Abrass as Curial Bishop of Antioch and titular bishop of Abydus. On November 11, 2006, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Myra of Greek Melkites and on 10 December 2006 was consecrated bishop by the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, Gregory III Laham. His co-consecrators were Archeparch Isidore Battikha, BA, from Homs and Archeparch Joseph Kallas of Beirut and Jbeil, SMSP. At the Synod of the Melkite bishops, which can be treated as an Episcopal Conference, he was elected Secretary General in 2007.[2] by
On June 21, 2014, he was named by Patriarch Gregory III Laham in accordance with the Melkite Synod Archbishop of Tyre.[3]
Abrass' position on the situation of Christians
In October 2010 Abrass was a delegate to the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (Catholic) in Rome and took a positio about the situation of Christians in Lebanon. He pointed out in his statement on three main areas: a) The selection and training of clergy must be more to the appeal and not for the potential career align; b) the jurisdiction state aligned with a part and religious-Islamic to the other part. This leads to different power relations and c) the work of the laity must be strengthened, this would mean that the Christians should learn some positive secularism.[4] With regard to the situation of Christians in Iraq, he questioned critically:
"If we are ever able to solve the problems of all our churches? I doubt it! Let's take for example the problems of the Christian churches in Iraq - are but political in nature and therefore can only be solved politically ... Many lay people wonder how you will treat them when they profess to be Christians - that's why they give themselves a shot secularism, depending on how emancipated her (often Muslim) interlocutor. We should lay this concede a certain liberalism ... "[5]