Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA – A memorial ceremony for the late Archbishop of Jerusalem in Exile Hilarion Capucci was held on Wednesday by the Cabinet, the Patriarchate of Melkite Rome Catholic Church and the Palestinian Embassy in Syria.
Representing President Bashar al-Assad, Presidential Political and Media Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban said the late Capucci translated his profound faith in God into persevering resistance work.
Shaaban spoke of Archbishop’s commitment to the issues of his homeland Syria, reminding of is attendance in Switzerland to participate in the first international conference on the war on Syria in the city of Montreux in 2014
“How could I not be here with you and with our beloved Syria,” Shaaban quoted Archbishop Capucci as saying at their meeting in Montreux city.
Archbishop of Jerusalem in Exile Hilarion Capucci passed away at the age of 94 in the Italian Capital of Rome on January 1st, 2017.
The late Capucci was born in Aleppo city in 1922 and became a bishop of the Greek Catholic Church in Jerusalem in 1965.
In 1974, Israeli occupation forces arrested Capucci and sentenced him to 12 years in prison on charge of supporting the resistance, but they released him after four years under pressure from the Vatican and then they exiled him from the occupied Palestine in 1978 to Rome.
Despite the deportation, he continued his struggle for the Palestinian people and attended many solidarity stands held in the Italian cities in order to reaffirm the support for the Syrian people in the face of terrorism and to demand the stop of the external aggression against Syria.
He was honored by many Arab countries.
