Patriarch visits region’s
Maronite Catholics
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
The Arabic hymn was “Ya Om Allah.” It isn’t
Islamic. It’s a favorite of Maronite Catholics and
it means, “O Mother of God.”
It was sung as part of the prayer service when Lebanon’s
Cardinal Nasrallah Peter Sfeir, Patriarch of the Maronite
Catholic Church, went to South Philadelphia’s St.
Maron Church on Friday, May 16.
Although the Patriarch has visited the United States previously,
this was his first visit to Philadelphia and St. Maron Church.
Founded in 1862, St. Maron is the mother parish for all
Maronite Catholics in North America.
The Patriarch’s visit also included a Mass attended
by Cardinal Justin Rigali at the Cathedral Basilica of SS.
Peter and Paul that evening, a Mass at St. Sharbel Maronite
Church in Newtown Square the next day and the reception
of an honorary degree at Villanova University on Sunday.
The Maronites, who trace their roots back to St. Maron in
sixth-century Lebanon, are one of the Eastern Churches of
the Antiochan tradition. Their liturgies include the use
of Arabic and ancient Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
Although the Maronite Church existed in almost virtual isolation
in mountainous Lebanon in its early centuries, it can boast
that at no time did it sever ties with the Holy See.
Because the previous day was the Maronite feast of Our Lady
of the Harvest (and coincidentally, the Patriarch’s
88th birthday), his brief homily focused on the feast in
context of the present suffering in his homeland.
“Whenever we sow justice we reap peace,” he
said. “We pray the fruits of our harvest may be peace.”
In fact, Lebanon has seen precious little peace in the last
three decades. For centuries it was the only predominantly
Christian area in the entire Middle East, but with a sizable
Islamic minority.
Peace was usually preserved through a mutual respect between
Christians and Muslims.
The delicate balance has been upset by sectarian strife
that began in neighboring countries but spilled over into
Lebanon, involving various Muslim factions as well as Christians,
with the resulting emigration of many Lebanese, especially
Christians.
“We have worked together but there are differences,”
Cardinal Sfeir said in an interview after the service. “Because
of the influence of our neighbors, the situation has been
troubled.
“We pray for peace and we work for peace, but we don’t
know if there will be peace because there are those who
do not want peace. But everything will have an end.”
Even as the Patriarch was speaking in Philadelphia, an Arab
League-sponsored meeting of all factions was underway in
Qatar to work out a peace agreement in Lebanon.
There are bright spots too. Three Maronite seminaries in
Lebanon and one here in the United States are thriving,
the Patriarch noted.
A tally of all Maronite immigrants to America and their
descendants, the Maronite Church estimates, would total
3 million people.
The actual number is much smaller, probably because most
Lebanese, for lack of a nearby Maronite church, are often
assimilated into Roman Catholic parishes. “We have
80 parishes in the U.S.,” said Bishop John Gregory
Mansour, who accompanied the Patriarch.
Bishop Mansour leads the Eparchy of Brooklyn, which covers
half of the United States, including Philadelphia.
Although he was born in Michigan, his family roots are mostly
Lebanese. But there was a Philadelphia connection —
he served as acting administrator of St. Maron’s for
six weeks after his 1983 priestly ordination.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance
writer.
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