St. George Church Cordoba
Melkite Greek Apostolic Exarchate of Argentina is an apostolic Exarchate (missionary pre – diocesan) of the Melkite Greek Catholic church covering all of Argentina for its Byzantine rite.
It is immediately subject to the Melkite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch. It is currently covered by Bishop Ibrahim Salameh, SMSP.
Apostolic Exarchate to the Melkites has jurisdiction over all the faithful of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Argentina. Its cathedral episcopal see is the cathedral of Saint George in the city of Cordoba, Argentina. In 2010 there were 300,000 baptized.
The faithful Catholics of the Greek Melkite rite began arriving in Argentina in the late nineteenth century. Shortly thereafter between the years 1910 and 1930, there was a massive immigration. A second mass arrival took place after World War II, between 1949 and 1950. Most of the immigrants were Lebanese and Syrian citizens.
There were also a few Palestinian families and very few Egyptians and Jordanians.
There is no official statistics on the number of Melkites in Argentina. The “ecclesiastical guide of the eastern Catholic churches in the Argentine Republic” edited in 1992 by the American Eparchy San Georgio de Narek, estimates that the Catholics of the Greek Melkites are about 15,000, while exponents of the new Exarchate rise that number to 400,000.
Its three most important centers of worship, located in Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Rosario, are attended by their own priests. The largest community resides in Cordoba, about 50,000, for which reason the curia del Exarcado has its headquarters in that city.
In order to attend spiritually to this community in our country, the Holy Father John Paul II erected, on April 20, 2002, the Apostolic Exarchate for the faithful Greco-Melkite Catholics of Argentina and established its headquarters in the city of Cordoba.
The territory is divided into three parishes:
St. George Parish, Cordoba
St. George Church, Rosario
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Buenos Aires
Ordinaries:
Apostolic Exarches of Argentina
Georges Nicholas Haddad, society of missionaries of Saint Paul (SMSP) (20 April, 2002 – 19 December, 2005 resigned), Titular Bishop of Myra of the Greek Melkites (20 April, 2002 – 17 October, 2006), later Apostolic administrator of Akka of the Greek Melkites (Israel) (18 March 2003 – 7 February 2006), Archeparchy of Banyas of the Greek Melkites (Lebanon) since (17 October 2006 ..)
Jean Abdo Arbach, Basilian Chouerite Order of Saint John the Baptist (B.C.) (17 October 2006 – 11 October 2006), Titular Bishop of Palmyra of the Greek Melkites ( 11 November 2006 – 23 June 2012), later Metropolitan Bishop of Homs of the Greek Melkites (Syria) (23 June 2012..)
Ibrahim Salameh (SMSP), since (15 August 2013-14 January 2023), Titular Bishop of Palmyra of the Greek-Melkites
P. Jean A. Chrouch (14 January 2023-…)
H.E. Archbishop Ibrahim Salameh
Apostolic Exarch in Argentina
El Templo Catedral San Jorge
Address : 278 Corrientes
X5022FGF Córdoba, Argentina
Phone : +54-351-421-0265
E-mail : catedralsanjorge@hotmail.com