The following is Jacksonville Journal article written from 1965
A Jacksonville priest who is the only clergyman of Syrian Rite Catholicism in the United States will be be invested tomorrow as a "papal chamberlain," a distinction conferred on him by Pope Paul VI.
A papal chamberlain automatically becomes a monsignor and may use the term "very reverend" in front of his name. Appointment as a chamberlain recognizes an outstanding member of the priesthood.
Conferring the honor on Msgr. Andrew Joseph Shashy in Holy Rosary Church will be Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley of the Diocese of St.
Augustine. The ceremony will begin at 8:30 p.m.
Father Shashy has been a Syrian Rite priest for 29 years. He served parishes in Syria for 15 years before being assigned to Jacksonville in 1950.
There are approximately 85,000 Syrian Rite Catholics in the world. Most are found in the Near East--in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan -but some 6,000 are scattered through the United States.
Fairly large concentrations of Syrian Rite Catholics are found in Jackonville; in Grand Rapids and Detroit, Mich.; and in Paterson. N.J.
Although they have their own churches in the Near East, Syrian Rite Catholics worship here in Holy Rosary church. But they have separate worship services here from the "Latin Rite"| Catholics, who form the vast majority of American Catholicism.
In other American cities, the Syrian Rite faithful either attend Latin Rite churches or services of other small "eastern" Catholic groups such as the Marionites, Malachites, Armenians and Chaldeans.
All of these eastern rite churches recognize the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Pope, but have long histories in which they deviated somewhat from the development of Latin Rite Catholicism.
For instance, the Syrian Rite separated from Roman Catholicism in 451 A.D., when the archbishop of Constantinople was excommunicated from the Latin Rite communion by the Council of Chalcedon, in a dispute over a theological concept known as monophysism.
For 11 centuries, the Syrian Catholics had their own sepaarate religious movement-until progress of science helped heal the cleavage with Rome.
In the 16th Century, the Syrian who: patriarch, Nemat Allah, reestablished communication with Rome when he visited Pope Gregory XIII. An expert in algebra and mathematics, Nemat-Allah helped Pope Gregory devise the Gregorian calendar, which is used today throughout the world.
Nemat-Allah spent rest of his life in Rome. and Syrian the Rite Catholics since that time have been a movement within Roman Catholicism.
"We have the same Catholic belief, the same sacraments, the same faith, the same dogma, the same superior -the Pope. There is no difference in our religion," Father Shashy told the Journal.
However, in Syrian Rite worship services, the Mass is said in the Syrian tongue, and there are some differences in the style of the vestments which the priests wear.
Father Shashy, like other priests in the Diocese of St. Augustine, looks to Archbishop Hurley as his spiritual leader. Unlike other priests in this area, however, he is assigned to his parish by Archbishop Joseph Rabbany of Homs, Syria.
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