Bashar Matti Warda | |
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Archbishop of Erbil of the Chaldeans | |
Native name | بشار متي وردة |
Church | Chaldean Catholic Church |
Archdiocese | Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Erbil |
Elected | 25 May 2009 |
Installed | 24 May 2010 |
Predecessor | Yacoub Denha Scher |
Other posts |
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Orders | |
Ordination | 8 May 1993 by Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid |
Consecration | 3 July 2010 by Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly |
Personal details | |
Born |
Baghdad, Iraq |
15 June 1969
Denomination | Chaldean Catholic |
Bashar Matti Warda (Arabic: بشار متي وردة; born 15 June 1969 in Baghdad, Iraq) is a Chaldean Catholic cleric and the current Archbishop of Erbil, Iraq.;
Born in 1969, Warda joined the Saint Peter's Chaldean seminary in Baghdad and was ordained a priest in 1993. In 1995 he joined the Redemptorist order of Flanders in Belgium. After receiving his master's at the Catholic University of Louvain in 1999 he returned to Iraq.
Warda was apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Zaku from July 2007 until its merger with the Diocese of Amadiyah in June 2013.
In 2009 the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church elected him Archbishop of the Archeparchy of Erbil. After Pope Benedict XVI gave his consent to this election in 2010 he was consecrated on 3 July of the same year.;
As part of his efforts to support the continuing Christian presence in Iraq, the Archbishop founded the Catholic University in Erbil, which was inaugurated in 2015.
Bishop Warda in 2015
Bishop Maurizio Malvestiti (left) with bishop Warda (right) during Pentecost all-night vigil in the cathedral of Lodi, 14 May 2016