Armenia: Eastern European Catholics Have a New Ordinary

Fr. Kevork Noradounguian was chosen to become Archbishop of Sebaste of the Armenians, a title that goes to the one who exercises the function of “ordinary” over the Armenian Catholics of Eastern Europe. The Pontifical Yearbook explains that these ordinariates are “geographical structures established for Eastern Catholic communities that do not have their own hierarchy in a specific place.”

They are headed by a prelate appointed by the Holy See, who reports directly to the latter, and who exercises jurisdiction over Eastern Catholics who do not have their own bishops. This ordinariate is, however, attached to the Armenian Patriarchate of Cilicia, which was recently presented on this site. The new bishop will reside in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

Fr. Noradounguian, who will be consecrated bishop shortly, thus takes the head of a quasi-diocese for the Armenian Catholic faithful of Eastern Europe, in a territory including Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine. In other words, a terrain where hybrid wars and open wars mix, in the midst of global geopolitical interests, and where Catholics are often collateral victims.

Indeed, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tearing each other apart for decades over a territorial conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, retaken in September 2023 by Baku after a lightning war against Armenian separatists who had themselves seized this territory in the 1990s.

Almost all Armenian Catholics had to flee the region and abandon it to the Muslims. After this bitter defeat, the Armenian authorities made the choice, with serious consequences, to distance themselves from their Russian neighbor – accused of inaction – and to move closer to the European Union and the West, which did not fail to offend the Kremlin.

In Georgia, where the new ordinary now exercises his jurisdiction over Armenian Catholics, the problem is different: the power in place has decided to move a little closer to Moscow, with the risk of increasing the fracture with Europe.

As for Ukraine, which also falls under the government of Fr. Noradounguian, the open war that Russia is waging against the country also puts Armenian Catholics in a more than delicate situation.

The Nor Haratch website gives the biography of the new bishop. Born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1968, he was ordained a priest on August 20, 1995 for the Institute of the Patriarchal Clergy of Bzommar (Lebanon). He was vice-rector of the minor seminary, vicar of the parish of Bourj Hammoud, rector of the minor seminary then of the minor and major seminary, administrator and general bursar of the Institute.

He then served as parish priest of the Armenian Catholic community of Moscow, rector of the Church of San Nicola da Tolentino and rector of the Pontifical Armenian College of Rome, apostolic administrator ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Amman, and parish priest of the Armenian Catholic parish of Lyon, France (2015-2023).

Needless to say, the new Archbishop of Sebaste of the Armenians was not chosen at random. The prelate is familiar with Russia – and the Russian authorities – since he spent several years dealing with the Armenian community established on the banks of the Moskva River.

His biography shows that he is familiar with the complex issues of the Middle East. There is no doubt that his knowledge of the terrain and of the principal political and religious actors in the region will be an asset for the Holy See in ensuring the survival of the Armenian Catholic minority and advance peace in the region.