The Maronite Foundation Receives Senior Catholic Delegation Headed by Cardinal McElroy

March 11, 2023 – Baabda, Lebanon
Cardinal Robert Walter McElroy headed a senior Catholic delegation to Lebanon on a pastoral mission to witness first hand the impact of the socio-economic crisis and the political impasse on the community in Lebanon. The Delegation visited with the Maronite Foundation in the World and conferred with it’s leadership on the latest in Lebanon and within the community in particular.
The high-level delegation was received by the Foundation’s President Charles Hage. His Eminence Cardinal McElroy was accompanied by Bishop John P. Dolan of the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona and Bishop Abdallah Elias Zeidan of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in Los Angeles, California, Bishop Peter Karam, Apostolic Administrator of Notre-Dame du Liban in Paris, France, the current and previous Superior Generals of the Lebanese Maronite Order of monks Abbots Hady Mahfouz and Neemtallah Hachem, Superior General of Congregation of Lebanese Maronite Missionaries, Father Maroun Moubarak, former Head of Caritas in Lebanon, Father Elie Madi and Father Raymond Sacca of the Diocese of Oakland, California. His Eminence Cardinal McElroy is bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, California.
The delegation was introduced to the members of the Foundation and a group of Lebanese Members of Parliament representing various parties and was briefed on the most pressing needs of the community in Lebanon in the food security, health care and education sectors. The Maronite Foundation in the World President laid out the findings of a major economic study the Foundation had recently commissioned which, among other, tabulated the crippling impact of the dense presence of Displaced Syrians in Lebanon and identified urgent, specific, and quantified actions needed to sustain the most vulnerable families and to curb the migration of Christians from Lebanon.
The Delegation was earlier received by His Beatitude Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Rai in Bkerki and will in turn convey its own findings from the visit to Lebanon to the Vatican, the US Council of Catholic Bishops and other officials.