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20 May 1975: Palestinians from the Tel el-Zaater camp attacked the Dekkwaneh neighborhood in East Beirut killing tens of civilians. 10 September 1975: The Christian village of Deir Ashash in the north of Lebanon was attacked, with the slaughter of three very elderly priests and forcing inhabitants from their homes. 11 September 1975: The Christian village of Beit Mallat was attacked, leaving seven people killed while ten were kidnapped. 9 October 1975: The Christian village of Tal Abbas in the northern Akkar region was attacked with 15 people killed. A local church was set alight. 30 October 1975: The...

Beirut, Lebanon- The presidential decree issued secretly gives Lebanese citizenship to 375 foreigners, including Syrians and Iraqis, Christians and Muslims. Some of them are under suspicion for iffy connections. For Card Al-Rahi, they do not honour "Lebanese nationality". The life of the country itself is in danger. Maronite bishops meet to discuss Church, social and pastoral issues. The Maronite Church, at the urging of Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi and on behalf of its Bishops, has loudly called for "the withdrawal of the naturalisation decree" by which the President of the Lebanon granted citizenship to at least 375 foreigners. Recently promulgated in...

Bishop Robert J. Shaheen, the first Maronite priest to be ordained in the United States and a priest and bishop in St. Louis for a half-century, died Aug. 9. Bishop Shaheen, who celebrated his 80th birthday in June, was the second bishop of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, headquartered in St. Louis. He retired in 2013. A celebration of the Divine Liturgy (funeral) was held Aug. 16 at St. Raymond Maronite Cathedral in St. Louis. He will be buried Monday, Aug. 21, from St. Anthony Maronite Church in his hometown of Danbury, Conn. "We pray...

Please ID the modded gun with the woman on the left. I want one. Pic of Lebanese women armed against #ISIS#Syria pic.twitter.com/aM473kP36M— Nutsflipped (@Nutsflipped_z_1) June 29, 2016

The patriarch Jeremiah Al Amchiti was born in Amsheet, Lebanon, where he grew up and received education until God called him for his service in the religious life. In fact, he became a monk, and with the help of his brothers David and Joseph, he lived for a while as a hermit in Amsheet’s hermitages. Those hermitages included vast and high cellars and three churches: Our Lady of the Sea, Saint Zakhia, and Saint John. They are all known as Saint Zakhia’s churches, and are considered today among the most important ancient ruins in Amsheet.In 1199, Jeremiah Al Amchiti was...

Why he continues to exist despite Islam's continued slaugher of Christians. The phenomenon of the Islamo-Christian” deserves wider attention, and the word wider use. An “Islamo-Christian” is, in its strictest sense, a Christian Arab who identifies with and works to advance the Islamic agenda, out of fear or out of a belief that his “Arabness” requires loyalty to Islam. Islamization by the Arab Muslim conquerors of Mesopotamia, Syria, and North Africa was a vehicle for Arab imperialism. This imperialism, the most successful in human history, convinced those who accepted Islam to also forget their own pre-Islamic or non-Islamic pasts. It...

In a stunning interview, the Maronite patriarch of Antioch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, has contended that Islam has a clear, two-pronged strategy to take over Europe: religion and procreation. The cardinal said that Muslims look on Christians as weak and believe that since they have no children and barely practice their faith, Islam will easily conquer them. Sadly, he said, Muslims take their faith more seriously than most Christians, and they are gaining ground because of it. "I have often heard from Muslims that their goal is to conquer Europe with two weapons: their faith and their birthrate," al-Rahi said......

Maronite leader appeals to worldwide faithful for help The Maronite Archbishop of Damascus, Samir Nassar, has written to Christians in the West asking them to help his country’s 12 million refugees and displaced people.In a letter to Aid to the Church in Need, the Maronite archbishop called the Syrian crisis “the cruelest human drama since the Second World War”, pointing out that 5.6 million children were affected by the war and that many people were dying in the conflict from wounds because of the exodus of doctors and a shortage of medical drugs. He also noted that 1,400 mosques and...

Our Lady’s Maronite Catholic Church I was raised as a Latin Rite Catholic. I did not hear that there was such a thing as the “Eastern Rite” until I was about 20 years of age. I was attending Christian Brothers College (now Christian Brothers University) in Memphis, Tennessee, and I took a concentration of courses in Religion and Culture (one short of a minor). My father, who was not Catholic, and I were talking about religion one day when he mentioned the Eastern Rite.Like many Catholics I have met since then, I asked what is often the question when someone...

READINGS Hebrews 7:11-19 - Melchizedek, a Type of Christ Brothers and Sisters: Now if perfection had been attainable through the levitical priesthood — for the people received the law under this priesthood — what further need would there have been to speak of another priest arising according to the order of Melchizedek, rather than one according to the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. Now the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served...

The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group has eyed Lebanon since the jihadists captured Syrian areas and towns along the border. Lebanese Christians are forming self-defense units for an inevitable invasion as the terrorists attempt to spread their caliphate."We are a minority and we are under threat by the jihadists," claimed Rifaat Nasrallah, one of the commanders for the volunteer guards in the Greek Catholic town of Ras Baalbek. "It [the defense units] wasn't the idea of anyone in particular. The whole village felt in danger so we all agreed it was necessary."The International Business Times reported the Islamic State threatened...

Balamand, Lebanon -- The patriarchs of Eastern churches Tuesday deplored the raging violence in Iraq and Syria that has caused a massive wave of refugees, exhorting Christians to maintain their presence in the region's war-torn countries and keep hold of their lands. In a statement released at the opening of their Holy Synod in Lady of Balamand Convent in north Lebanon, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, Melkite Gregorius III Lahham, Syriarc Catholic Patriarch Ignatius III Younan, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem and Greek Orthodox Patriarch John Yazigi released a statement on local and regional developments. "The patriarchs prayed for the people...

Father Wissam Akiki with his wife and daughter, Perla, at her first Communion. ST. LOUIS — Surrounded by his wife, daughter and the bishops of his Church, Father Wissam Akiki made history in February as the first married man in 90 years to enter the priesthood for the Maronite Catholic Church in the U.S. Kp> But for Catholics of most Eastern-rite Churches in the U.S., including the Maronites, the fact the priest is a married man isn’t that extraordinary: What’s extraordinary is that they have to ask the Vatican for permission to ordain married men in the first place. snip...

Pope Francis has signed off on a married man's decision to join the priesthood in the Maronite Catholic Church. Deacon Wissam Akiki, of St. Louis, Mo., who is married and has a daughter, was expected to be ordained on Thursday night, in a the Maronite church. The sect of the Eastern Catholic Christianity originated in the fifth century in what is now modern-day Lebanon. While married priests are common within in the Maronite Catholic Church overseas, says St. Raymond's Chancellor Louis Peters, marriage for religious leaders was banned in the U.S. in the 1920s. According to the church's American spokesperson,...

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Shaheen, 76, leader of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, headquartered just south of downtown St. Louis, in a pastoral center next to St. Raymond's Maronite Catholic Parish. Canon law requires bishops to submit their resignations at age 75. The pope named the Rev. Abdallah Zaidan, 50, rector of Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon-St. Peter Maronite Cathedral in Los Angeles, to succeed Shaheen. The Maronite Catholic Church, an ancient Eastern Rite branch of Catholicism, is based in Lebanon. St. Raymond's is the seat of one of two eparchies, or dioceses,...

Yitschak Ben Gad: "Politics, lies, and videotape: 3,000 Questions and Answers on the Mideast Crisis," SP Books, 1991, 479 pp.p. 245 Q: What is known about the massacre of 1860? A: In 1860, the Lebanese Druze attacked the Christian Maronites. Thousands of men, women and children were murdered. The Christians sent forth a desperate plea for help to the European powers in order to save them from complete annihilation... Q: Who came to the aid of the Christians? A: Sir Moses Montefiore, the well-known British Jewish leader, astonished by the disaster that befell the Lebanese Christians, did his utmost to...

Saint Charbel Makhlouf. Denver, Colo., Jul 22, 2012 / 06:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On July 24, the Catholic Church celebrates the life of St. Charbel Makhlouf, a Maronite Catholic priest, monk, and hermit who is known for working miracles both during his life and after his death. On the occasion of his beatification in 1965, the Eastern Catholic hermit was described by Pope Paul VI as “ a new, eminent member of monastic sanctity,” who “through his example and his intercession is enriching the entire Christian people.” Born into humble circumstances in Lebanon during 1828, Yussef Antoun Makhlouf was...

(Vatican Radio) Starting August, Christians throughout the Middle East will begin a simultaneous prayer marathon in the lead up to Pope Benedict XVI’s arrival in Lebanon on September 14th. From Bkerke to Baghdad, through Gaza’s tiny parish of the Holy Family, the same set of prayers will be recited weekly by Maronites, Melkites, Chaldeans, Syrian Catholics and Armenian Catholics. As well as the faithful of other denominations. The Christians of the Middle East are waiting for Pope Benedict. “The excitement is building”, says Fr. Marwan Tabet, general co-ordinator of the Papal trip to Lebanon in an interview with Emer McCarthy...

In the Palestinian village of Beit Jala, an older generation of Aramaic speakers is trying to share the language with their grandchildren. Beit Jala sits next to Bethlehem, where the New Testament says Jesus was born. And in the Arab-Israeli village of Jish, nestled in the Galilean hills where Jesus lived and preached, elementary school children now are being instructed in Aramaic. The children belong mostly to the Maronite Christian community, where members still chant their liturgy in Aramaic, though few understand the prayers. “We want to speak the language that Jesus spoke,” said Carla Hadad, a 10-year-old Jish girl...

Bishop Paul P. Chomnycky of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford, Conn., concelebrates Mass with U.S. bishops from Eastern Catholic churches at the Altar of the Tomb in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome May 15. Bishops from Chaldean, Ruthenian, Maronite, Ukrainian, Armenian, Melkite, Syriac and Romanian Catholic churches were making their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican to report on the status of their dioceses. (CNS/Paul Haring) VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While their numbers are small and their material resources are few, members of the Eastern Catholic churches in the United States have much to offer the...