Mar Aprem Metropolitan, who had led the Assyrian Church of the East in India for five decades, died on July 7 following a brief hospitalization for age-related ailments in Thrissur, Kerala. He was 85. The metropolitan was born as George Mookken on June 13, 1940, in Thrissur, which was then in the Kingdom of Cochin under British India. Educated in India, England, and America, Mar Aprem specialized in Church History. He obtained master’s degrees in Church History from both the United Theological College, Bangalore, and the Union Theological Seminary, New York. He studied theology at Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur. He was ordained a deacon on June 25, 1961, and a priest on June 13, 1965. He was consecrated bishop on September 21, 1968, by Mar Thoma Darmo, Catholicos Patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East. He took the name Mar Aprem Mooken, and was promoted as a Metropolitan of the Ancient Church of the East eight days later in Baghdad. In 1999, he rejoined the Assyrian Church of the East and was instrumental in healing the rift that had developed in the church over the question of hereditary appointments since the 1960s. He served as the president of the Church History Association of India during 1976-1982. Mar Aprem was a prominent personality in Thrissur. He promoted religious harmony. His speech, filled with fun and wisdom, had won several fans across Kerala. He served as the head of the Chaldean Syrian Church in India for about five decades. He wrote some 65 books, prominent among them is his Syriac translation of Daiva Dashakam (Ten Verses To God: The Universal Prayer).
Spanish bishops speak out after leaks of their meeting with Leo XIV
The executive committee of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, (CEE, by its Spanish acronym) meeting in Madrid this week, issued an official statement regarding the leaks
