Soro was baptized in the
Assyrian Church of the East. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1982 and to the episcopate in 1984 by
Mar Dinkha IV. He served the Assyrian eparchy of the Western United States, and subsequently the eparchy of California. Mar Bawai was one of the few theologians of the Assyrian Church, and so was assigned responsibility for leading the theological dialogue with the Catholic Church which produced the joint Christological Declaration in 1994, resolving a 1500-year-old theological dispute and the principal reason for schism between the Churches in the first place. While still an Assyrian bishop, Mar Bawai was pursuing studies first at the
Catholic University of America in Washington, then earned a doctorate in ecumenism from the
Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome, in 2002. However, after two decades of successful dialogue made clear that there were no obstacles to full communion, the patriarchal synod suspended the official dialogue in 2004. Soro was suspended in November 2005 for alleged "rebellion of dogma," after attempting to usurp the diocese by incorporating several Churches under his name, and barring Church leadership from the properties. In 2007, after numerous lawsuits, Soro was ordered by the Supreme Court of California to surrender all Church property, and was formally laicized and defrocked by the Assyrian Holy Synod in 2008. On October 31, 2017, Pope Francis appointed Soro as eparch of the
Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto. He was installed on November 29, 2017. On September 11, 2021, he resignation was accepted by Pope Francis. ==See also==