Ignatius Ghattas

Who was Ignatius Ghattas?

Ignatius Ghattas was a bishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. He served as Eparch of Newton from 1990 until his death.

Bishop Ghattas was born in Nazareth in 1920 and raised in Maaloul. He entered Holy Saviour monastery in Saida, Lebanon following his primary education and professed his religious vows in 1939. He was ordained a priest of the Basilian Salvatorian Order in 1946. Following his ordination he taught Greek, Latin, English, French and mathematics.

In 1952, he went to the United States to serve as assistant pastor of St. Elias parish in Cleveland, Ohio, and was appointed pastor in 1955. Later he was elected bishop by the Holy Synod of the Melkite Church in July 1989 and approved by the Holy See on December 11. He was consecrated bishop on February 23, 1990, succeeding Archbishop Joseph Tawil as eparch.

He died in Cleveland, Ohio in 1992, aged 71.