Requiem Mass To Be Said For Cardinal

The following is a transcript of a news article from The Florida Times Union, February 3, 1968.

A Solemn High Requiem Mass for Gabriel Cardinal Tappouni, the first cardinal ever named from the Eastern Rites of the Roman Catholic Church when nominated by Pope Pius XI in 1935, will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Laura and Cottage streets.

The celebrant of the Mass will be the Most Rev. Msgr. Andrew Shashy.

Msgr. Shashy said Cardinal Tappouni, the patriarch of the Syrian Rite church since 1929, died Monday in Beirut, Lebanon, at the age of 88.

The cardinal is survived in Jack-sonville by five nieces and nephews - Mrs. A. R. Ossi, Mrs. Ginny Nackashi, Solomon Nackashi, Hekat Nackaski and Ephrem Nackaski; and several grandnieces and grandnephews.

Born in 1879, Cardinal Tappouni was ordained priest in 1902, bishop in 1912, archbishop of Aleppo, Syria, in 1921 and patriarch in 1929.

Of the 150,000 Syriac Catholies in the world, Msgr. Shashy said, more than 900 live in the Jacksonville area.

Note: His Beatitude, Ignatius Gabriel Tappouni, Cardinal Archbishop and Patriarch of Antioch, was the prelate who allowed Fr. Andrew Shashy, Pastor of Holy Rosary's Syrian community, to order the translation of the Syrian Mass to English for the benefit of the faithful.

Cardinal Tappouni was ordained priest a week after his 23rd birthday; consecrated Bishop by Patriarch Ignace Denis Ephrem Rahmani shortly at the age of 33; and created cardinal by Pope Pius XI in 1935.