The Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church has chosen a new Patriarch, Raphael Bedros Minassian, who has been the ordinary of the Armenian Catholics of Eastern Europe.

The Armenian Synod met in Rome this week, after an earlier session in June failed to reach agreement on a successor to Patriarch Bedros XX Ghabroyan, who died in May.

The new Patriarch, a native of Lebanon, served as a pastor to Armenian Catholic parishes in the US from 1989 to 2003.