Source: Los Angeles Times

On May 23, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "congregants of the city's only Melkite Church welcomed Syria's new Catholic leader to Los Angeles, comparing the visit by black-robed Gregory III to an appearance by the Roman Catholic pope...The 67-year-old 'patriarch of Alexandria, Jerusalem and all the East,' stopped briefly in Los Angeles to greet parishioners and draw attention to unrest in the Middle East... One of the largest of the Eastern rite churches, the Melkite Church has been called a 'voice for the East within the Western Church.'" An estimated 4,000 families of Melkite Catholics live in Southern California.