Joseph Elias Tawil (December 25, 1913 – February 17, 1999) was a Syrian prelate who served as Eparch of Newton in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 1970 to 1989.
On October 30, 1969, Archbishop Tawil was appointed Apostolic Exarch for the United States by Pope Paul VI, and was installed on March 15, 1970.
Bishop Najmy had died only two years after his installation, and thus the major task of welding an efficient diocese out of the existing parishes scattered over the country fell to Archbishop Tawil.
One of Tawil's first actions was to write the pastoral letter The Courage to be Ourselves to strengthen his flock, many of whom were relatively newcomers in this country and surrounded by the far more numerous Latin Catholics.
Latinizing this small number of Easterners would not be a gain for Rome; rather it would block - perhaps forever - a union of the separated Churches of the East and West.
It would be easy then for Orthodoxy to see that union with Rome leads surely to ecclesiastical assimilation.Tawil founded the diocesan publication "Sophia" and in 1971 established a diaconate training program, the first in an Eastern Catholic diocese in the United States.
Upon reaching retirement age, Archbishop Tawil assumed emeritus status on December 12, 1989, but remained active in church affairs despite the onset of Parkinson's disease.