Appointment of eparchial bishop of Mar Addai of Toronto of the Chaldeans, Canada

The Holy Father has appointed as eparchial bishop of Mar Addai of Toronto of the Chaldeans, Canada, H.E. Msgr. Bawai Soro, transferring him from the titular see of Foraziana.

H.E. Msgr. Bawai Soro

H.E. Msgr. Bawai Soro was born on 3 March 1954 in Kirkuk, Iraq, and was baptized (with the name of Ashur Soro) in the Assyrian Church of the East. In 1973 his family left Iraq, and following a few years in Lebanon, they transferred to the United States of America in 1976. He was ordained a priest on 21 February 1982 in Chicago, United States of America, and appointed as pastor of the Saint Mary’s Parish in Toronto, Canada.

He was elected bishop of the new Assyrian eparchy of Western United States, based in San José, California, United States of America, on 21 October, and received episcopal consecration in California, with the name of Bawai Soro. From 1995 to 1999 he was bishop of Seattle, after which he returned in 1999 to the see of San José. The prelate was one of the most active promoters of dialogue between the Assyrian Church and the Catholic Church.

He studied at the Catholic University of America, Washington, obtaining a master’s degree in theology in 1992, and at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University in Rome, where in 2002 he obtained a doctorate in sacred theology.

In June 2013, the Synod of Chaldean Bishops received him as a member and on 11 January 2014, the Holy Father Francis assigned him the titular see of Foraziana. He has served the eparchy of Saint Peter Apostle of San Diego of the Chaldeans, United States of America, as protosyncellus until the appointment of the current bishop, H.E. Msgr. Shaleta, on 1 August 2017.