On a pastoral visit to the United States Cardinal Sfeir welcomed with open arms
Jul 31, 2006
The Maronite patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, is now in the United States making a 20-day pastoral visit. The head of the Maronite Church is accompanied by bishops Roland Abou-Jaoudé and Youssef Beshara: Father Richard Abi-Saleh, secretary-general of the Council of Patriarchs and Bishops, and other members of the clergy.
(mmorning.com, July 12th 2006) On the eve of his departure, the cardinal-patriarch received General Michel Aoun, who had come to bid him farewell. As to the declarations of Sleiman Franjié, former MP and minister, against Mgr. Youssef Beshara, patron of the Kornet Shahwan Grouping, they have aroused a great controversy.
Sfeir regrets what Franjié said
Mgr. Sfeir had time before his departure for the United States to reply to what Franjié said, regretting strongly that the statements had been made. “We know that the former minister and MP is the son of the Maronite Church and that he is concerned about this church and with its moral authority. But his attack against one of its dignitaries is inappropriate”, he said while wishing that this affair would “not go further”. Asked about whether the national dialogue would continue, he replied that it was “indispensable”, regretting the disfunctioning of civil institutions that made it necessary. Replying to journalists’ questions on the subject of weapons held by Hezballah, he said, “The regular forces must defend the country, and the Resistance is, so far, an accomplished fact. But it’s necessary that the discussion be directed in such a manner that the Army alone should be in charge of defending the national territory”.
Subsequently, a communiqué from the secretariat-general of the Maronite Patriarchate was issued in St. Louis, in the US, pointing out that the patriarch and the bishops are one and the same entity”, in reply to Franjié’s assertion that his criticism was not in any way directed against the Patriarchate but only against Bishop Youssef Beshara. The communiqué stressed that “when the Church treats of politics, it seeks only the higher interest of the nation…”
In St. Louis
It was in St. Louis that the patriarch first landed in the US, being received on his descent from the aircraft by Mgr. Robert Shahin, first Maronite archbishop in the United States, born in the US, and Francis Lay, a Maronite of Lebanese origin who is mayor of St. Louis, who presented the cardinal with the key to the city after an address in which he praised the patriarch’s action and his role in the service of peace and the dialogue of civilizations. In the evening the patriarch went to St. Raymond’s Cathedral for celebration of a mass to commemorate 40 years of the creation of the first Maronite diocese in the United States, in St. Louis. There he met with Lebanese who had come from all parts of Missouri and neighboring states, and he expressed his joy at seeing that “the Maronite Church in the United States is active and prosperous; that those who have immigrated here from Lebanon and the Middle East have found a welcoming land that enables them to practice their faith and customs in complete freedom”.
Cardinal Sfeir spent four days in Missouri, which has 40,000 Maronites and one of whose avenues bears the patriarch’s own name. His Beatitude received an honorary doctorate from St. Louis’ Jesuit university and the insignia of the Order of St. Ignatius de Loyola (founder of the Jesuits). On Saturday evening the Maronite parish of Our Lady of Lebanon held a dinner in the cardinal’s honor attended by Americans of Lebanese descent, among them Ray Lahoud, a member of the US Congress, who assured the patriarch that no American president had taken an interest in Lebanon like that of President George Bush. For his part, the mayor of St. Louis declared July 1 to be “the day of Patriarch Sfeir”.
And in Chicago
On Monday, July 3, Cardinal Sfeir arrived in Chicago to attend the National Maronite Assembly, which this year is debating the decisions of the Maronite Patriarchal Synod.
Questioned by journalists on the situation in Lebanon, he indicated, “The Syrian army has left Lebanon, but Syria has maintained its intelligence service”. The annual National Maronite Assembly, held this year in St. Maroun’s Church in Chicago, and of which Patriarch Sfeir is honorary president, was one of the principal stops on the patriarchal itinerary. It opened its discussions on July 4, Independence Day, and Cardinal Sfeir told the delegates he hoped “this great country will remain a beacon for all mankind, defending faith in God, freedom and justice for all”, declaring that “it is necessary to pass from words to acts”.
In the cardinal’s entourage it was believed that he might be received by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, or even President Bush. However, that may be, it was clear that the US had given the head of the Maronite Church a welcome of extraordinary enthusiasm.
On a pastoral visit to the United States Cardinal Sfeir welcomed with open arms