Nerses Setian

Press Release Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops September 16, 2002

Death of Most Rev. Nerses Setian

(CCCB - Ottawa) * Most Reverend Nerses Mikael Setian, Apostolic Exarch Emeritus for Armenian Catholics in the United States and Canada, died on September 9, 2002, in Los Angeles, following a long and painful illness.

Visitations will be held on Tuesday, September 17, 2002, at 7:00 p.m. in Glendale California. The funeral Mass will be celebrated by Most Reverend Manuel Batakian, Apostolic Exarch, on Wednesday, September 18, at 10:00 a.m., in St. Gregory Armenian Catholic Church, in Glendale.

Bishop Setian was born in 1918 in Zara, Turkey, ordained to the priesthood in 1941 in Rome, and named Apostolic Exarch for Armenian Catholics in Canada and the United States in 1981. Earlier, he had served as rector of the Armenian Cathedral in Istanbul, rector of the Armenian Pontifical College in Rome, founding director of the Armenian section of Vatican Radio in 1966, and procurator for the Armenian Catholic Patriarchy to the Holy See (1974-1981).

In Roman Catholic tradition, an Apostolic Exarch is one who receives responsibility from the Holy See for Eastern Catholics who reside in an area not ... (truncated)