Towards the Enthronement of Bishop Kevork Noradounguian at the Armenian Catholic Ordinariate of Eastern Europe by Carlo Coppola

Questo articolo di Carlo Coppola è apparso in lingua italiana sulle riviste Bariconnessa e La Fiaccola

Գէորգ Նորադունգեանի գահակալութեան ուղղութեամբ՝ Արեւելեան Եւրոպայի Հայ Կաթողիկէ Օրինարիատին մէջ: Կառլո Կոպպոլայի հոդված.

On September 26, 2024, at 11:00 a.m., the enthronement of the Armenian Catholic Ordinary of Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe by the new Ordinary will take place in the Cathedral of Gyumri, Armenia. He is His Excellency Rev. MSGR. Kevork Noradounguian, born in Aleppo in the Syrian Arab Republic on November 16, 1968. On August 20, 1995, at the age of twenty-six, he was ordained a priest of the Institute of the Patriarchal Clergy of Bzommar and two years later he obtained a licentiate in Educational Sciences at the Pontifical Salesian University of Rome.

During his life as a priest he held various positions, often linked to the high competence and magisterial value he showed from a very young age, as a tutor, guide and mentor of catechumens, seminarians and priests. He was in fact Vice-Rector of the Minor Seminary (1997-1998); Assistant Parish Priest in Bourj Hammoud (1998-1999); Rector of the Minor Seminary (1999-2001); Rector of the Minor and Major Seminaries (2001-2007); Administrator and General Treasurer of the Institute (2003-2007); Parish Priest of the Armenian-Catholic Community in Moscow (2007-2010). From 2010 to 2015 he held the important role of Rector of the church of San Nicola da Tolentino and of the Pontifical Armenian College in Urbe, as well as Apostolic Administrator ad nutum Sanctæ Sedis of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Jerusalem and Amman (2013-2015). For eight years he was Parish Priest of the Armenian Catholics in Lyon, France (2015-2023). In August 2023 he was transferred from France to Lebanon where he was Patriarchal Vicar of the Institute of the Patriarchal Clergy of Bzommar and Superior of the Convent of Our Lady of Bzommar.

The Episcopal Ordination took place last September 21 in Rome in the Church of San Nicola da Tolentino agli Orti Sallustiani in the presence of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the Vatican State and the Republic of Armenia and of many faithful and spiritual children from various parts of Italy, Europe, but also from Syria and Lebanon and Iraq, who recognize in the new archbishop a worthy and good father, a sure spiritual and moral guide well before his election as Bishop, member of the Holy Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church.

On Monday September 23, leaving Rome, accompanied by MSGR. Bedros Marashlian, the new archbishop arrived in Yerevan. Since their arrival at the international airport of Zvartnoz, both were welcomed by the clergy of the Armenian diocese, with seminarians, deacons and psalmists. In the dining room of the Ordinariate, the newly consecrated Archbishop blessed those present, and after the blessing and presentation, lunch took place.

On September 24, His Excellency Archbishop Noradounguian visited His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. A short statement from the Holy See of the Armenian Apostolic Church reads that "welcoming the inaugural visit of Bishop Kevork to the See of Holy Echmiadzin, the Armenian Catholicos congratulated him on the occasion of his episcopal ordination and consecration, as well as on his assumption of the office of Primate of the Armenian Catholic community." Furthermore, "His Holiness the Catholicos of All Armenians, bestowing his blessing on the new bishop, hoped for the help and guidance of Almighty God in his Holy Mission for the Glory of the Holy Church of Christ."