sees itself as an authentic Orthodox church in communion with the Catholic Church. As such it has a role as a voice of the East within the western church, a bridge between faiths and peoples. Attempts to unite the Melkite diaspora Due to heavy emigration from the Eastern Mediterranean, which began with the Damascus massacres of 1860 in which most of the Christian communities were attacked, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church today is found throughout the world and no longer made up exclusively of faithful of Eastern Mediterranean origin. The Patriarchate of Maximos V saw many advances in the worldwide presence of the Melkite Church, called "the Diaspora": Eparchies (the Eastern equivalent of a diocese) were established in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Argentina and Mexico in response to the continued emptying of the Eastern Mediterranean of her native Christian peoples. Some historians state that after the revolution in Egypt in 1952, many Melkites left Egypt due to the renewed Islamic, nativist and socialist policies of the Nasser regime. In 1950, the richest Melkite community in the world was in Egypt. In 1945 the most populous single diocese was Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee. In 1967, a native Egyptian of Syrian-Aleppin descent, George Selim Hakim, was elected the successor of Maximos IV, and took the name Maximos V. He was to reign until he retired at the age of 92 in the Jubilee Year of 2000. He reposed on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29, 2001. He was succeeded by Archbishop Lutfi Laham, who took the name Gregory III. Melkite Greek Catholic Church is the largest Catholic community in Syria and Israel, and the second largest in Lebanon. As of 2014 the Melkite Greek Catholic Church was the largest Christian community in Israel, with roughly 60% of Israeli Christians belonging to the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Due to the Christian emigration from the Middel East, São Paulo is now home to the largest Melkite community in the diaspora (estimated around 433,000), followed by Argentina (302,800). Other large Melkite communities can be found in Australia (52,000), Canada (35,000), Venezuela (25,400), the United States (24,000), and other countries. According to figures by the Holy See in 2008, Lebanon is now home to the largest Melkite community in the Middle East (425,000), followed by Syria (234,000). There are more than 80,000 Greek Melkite Catholics in Israel and Palestine,