Youssef Absi in the context of "Melkite Catholic Church"

The Melkite Greek Catholic Church (كنيسة الروم الملكيين الكاثوليك, Kanīsat ar-Rūm al-Malakiyyīn al-Kāṯūlīk; Μελχιτική Ελληνική Καθολική Εκκλησία; Ecclesia Graeca Melchitarum Catholica), also known as the Melkite Byzantine Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Its chief hierarch is Patriarch Youssef Absi, whose see is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Dormition in Damascus, Syria.

The Melkite Church follows the Byzantine Rite and traces its origins to the early Christian community of the Patriarchate of Antioch in the 1st century AD, traditionally founded by the apostle Saint Peter.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Dormition (Arabic: كَاتِدْرَائِيَّةُ سَيِّدَةِ النِّيَاحِ لِلرُّومِ الْمَلَكِيِّينَ فِي دِمَشْقَ, romanized: Kātidrāʾīyat Sayyidat an-Niyāḥ li r-Rūm al-Malakīyīn fī Dimašq), also known as Arabic: كنيسة الزيتون, romanized: Kanīsat az-Zaytūn, lit. 'The Olive Church', or called the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchal Cathedral of the Dormition of Our Lady, is the cathedral of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the city of Damascus, Syria. It is the seat of the Greek-Melkite Archeparchy of Damascus (Latin: Archieparchia Damascena Graecorum Melkitarum) dependent on the Melkite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch, which includes about 150,000 baptized adherents and twenty parishes with fifty priests. Its faithful, assigned from the 18th century to the Holy See in Rome, employ the Arabic language and the Byzantine rite.

The Archbishop Vicar (or Eparca) starting in 2006 was Youssef Absi, former Superior General of the Society of Missionaries of St. Paul. On June 21, 2017, he was elected as the Melkite Greek Patriarch.