- Nerses Bedros XIX
infobox bishopstyles
name=Nerses Bedros XIX
dipstyle=His Beatitude
offstyle=Your Beatitude
relstyle=Catholicos
deathstyle=Not applicable |Nerses Bedros XIX was born in
Cairo ,Egypt onJanuary 17 ,1940 , the fifth of eight children, is the current patriarch of theArmenian Catholic Church .He was the second son to Elias Taza and Josephine Azouz. He completed his primary and secondary studies at the College of theBrothers of the Christian Schools (Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes) in Cairo.He felt the vocation to
priesthood very early in life and thus was sent to theArmenian Leonine Pontifical College ofRome in 1958 where he studied Philosophy and Theology at thePontifical Gregorian University . His Bishop, Msgr.Raphael Bayan , ordained him priest in Cairo on15 August 1965 . In Heliopolis he was known as Father Pierre Taza.He served the parish of the
Catholic Armenian Cathedral of the Annunciation in Cairo from 1965 to 1968 with the Reverend Father John Kasparian (who becamePatriarch Catholicos under the name of John Peter XVIII Kasparian in 1982). From 1968 to 1990, he wascurate of the parish of St. Therese of Heliopolis in Cairo, where he encouraged the new ecclesial realities that sprung fromVatican II , especially theNeocatechumenal Way .On the
February 18 ,1990 , he was ordainedbishop of theEparchy (Diocese) ofAlexandria for Egypt andSudan by the imposition of the hands of His Beatitude Jean Pierre XVIII.From 1992 to 1997, as member of the Catholic
Hierarchy of Egypt, he was the General Secretary of the Pastoral Council of the Catholic Church of Egypt.As a member of the
Synod of the Bishops of the Catholic Armenian Patriarch Church, he was successful in being:
*Member of the Council of the three Bishops to direct the Patriarchal Curie from 1993 to 1995.
*President of the Patriarchal Commission for the Vocations from 1993 to 1995.
*Member of the Permanent Synod as of 1994.In October 1999, he was elected by the Bishops of the Holy Synod of the Catholic Armenian Synod, Patriarch Catholicos of Cilicia for the Catholic Armenians and took the name of Nerses Bedros XIX.
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