On 16th June the press office of the Holy See announced some transfers and episcopal appointments by the synod of the Maronite Church. The new bishops include Father Moussa El-Hage, abbot of the convents of Saints Sarkis et Bacchus of Ehden and Zghorta (Lebanon). Elevated to the dignity of archbishop, he is bound for the See of Haifa and the Holy Land of the Maronites (Israel). At the same time he will also be Patriarchal Exarch of Jerusalem, Palestine and Jordan.

Monsignor El-Hage succeeds Mons. Paul Nabil El-Sayah, who was transferred last year to the Patriarchal Curia of Bkerke, in Lebanon.

The new archbishop was born in Antoura (Metn), on 19th February 1954. He entered the Antonin Maronite Order when he was very young, pronouncing the perpetual profession of religious vows in 1979. He was ordained a priest on 14th August 1980.

Monsignor El-Hage also knows the Franciscans of the Custody very well. After his baccalaureate degree in philosophy and theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Rome), he graduated in Biblical Theology from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem. He then took a doctorate in Oriental Studies and Liturgy at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. He also took a diploma in patristics and another in solfeggio. He has published his Ph.D. thesis and a tourist-spiritual guide to the Holy Land, as well as numerous articles on liturgy and pastoral.

During his ministry, he has held a number of positions in his Order: superior of the Sant’Isaia College in Rome, as well as being responsible for the students (1988-1991); bursar of the Saint Elie convent of Antélias (1991-1993); master of the novices (1993-1994); general assistant, appointed by the then apostolic visitor of the Order (1993-1999); dean of the Faculty of Biblical Studies (1997-2000) and of the Faculty of Religious and Pastoral Sciences of the Antonianum University (from 1999); general assistant (2005-2011). In 2011-2012 he was also given responsibility as patriarchal administrator of the eparchy of Lattaquié of the Maronites.

Since 1993 he has been a member of the League and of the Biblical Commission of the Maronite Patriarchate and since 2011 of the Patriarchal Liturgical Commission. He speaks Arabic, English, French and Italian and knows Syriac, Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.

He will be at the head of a community of 10,000 faithful, concentrated mainly in Galilee, around the city of Haifa.

© www.terrasanta.net - june 18th 2012