Announcement – New Eparch for Newton by Exarch Joseph Hagger |
His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, has accepted the resignation of the Most Reverend John A. Elya from pastoral governance of the Eparchy of Newton and has appointed the Most Reverend Cyril Salim Bustros, most recently Archbishop of Baalbeck in Lebanon, as the new Eparch of Newton.
Archbishop Cyril was born at Ain-Borday, near Baalbeck in Lebanon on January 26, 1939 . After his primary and secondary studies at the Minor Seminary of St. Paul at Harissa, he pursued his philosophical studies at St. Paul Institute in 1956 and 1957, and made his novitiate at the White Fathers in Gap, France. Then, he studied theology for four years (1958-1962) at the Major Seminary at St. Anne of Jerusalem. He was ordained to the Holy Priesthood in the Society of the Missionaries of St. Paul on June 29, 1962 .
From 1962-1970, he was Professor of Classical Greek and of French Literature at the Minor Seminary. Then from 1972-1974 Professor of Philosophy and Theology at St. Paul Institute in Harissa.
Interrupting his teaching, he pursued a Doctorate of Theology at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, and received his degree in 1976. Then for eleven years he was Director of the St. Paul Institute of Philosophy and of Theology of the Paulist Missionaries at Harissa, and at the same time Professor at St. Joseph University in Beirut, and in various lay centers.
It was in 1988 that the Holy Synod of the Melkite Church elected him Archbishop of Baalbeck, succeeding the Most Reverend Elias Zoghby. He was ordained to the Holy Episcopate on November 27, 1988, in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, by His Beatitude Maximos V, assisted by Archbishops Elias Zoghby and Joseph Raya.
Plans for the Installation of Archbishop Bustros will be forthcoming as soon as they have been formulated.