Pope John Paul II has nominated as Vicar Apostolic of Aleppo of the Latin Church in Syria the Rev. Fr Giuseppe Nazzaro OFM, until recently Parish Priest and Guardian of the fraternity of St Anthony in Damascus, and assigning to him the titular see of Forma.

Fr Nazzaro was born in San Potito (Avellino) on the 22 of December 1937. In 1956 he began his novitiate in the Custody of the Holy Land, and made his solemn vows on the 18th December 1960. In 1965 he was ordained priest and consequently attained a Diploma in Catechesis and a Licentiate in Theology.

From 1966 to 1968 Fr Nazzaro was economus and Vice-Rector of the Holy Land College in Aleppo, and then held various jobs: as Vice-Rector of the Minor Seminary of the Custody of the Holy Land in Rome (1968-1971), Parish Priest at Alexandria in Egypt (1971-1977), at Cairo (1971-1979), Rector of the Minor Seminary of the Custody of the Holy Land in Rome (1979-1980), once again Parish Priest at Cairo and Teacher of Arabic in the Cairo Italian high school (1981-1986), Secretary of the Custody of the Holy Land (1986-1992), CUSTOS of the Holy Land (1992-1998). After that date he served the Custody of the Holy Land in Naples, and since 2001 he has been in the Fraternity of St Anthony in Damascus.

The new prelate speaks arabic, french, english, italian, spanish and latin.

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