 |
| Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi |
|
| Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi was born in Himlaya, Matn District, Lebanon on 25 February 1940. He attended College Notre-Dame de Jamhour, a Jesuit school in Lebanon. He entered into the Mariamite Maronite Order on July 31, 1962 and he was ordained as a priest on 3 September 1967. From 1967 to 1975 he was responsible for the Arabic language transmissions of Vatican Radio.. In 1975 he was awarded a Phd in canon and civil law. He also studied for three years in the Lateran University in Rome.
He was consecrated as auxiliary Bishop of Antioch on 12 July 1986, by Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir and on June 9, 1990, appointed Bishop of Byblos. In 2003 he was elected Secretary of the Maronite Synod, and in 2009 he was appointed President of the Lebanese Episcopal Commission for the Media. In 2007 he received the award of the National Order of the Cedar.
At age 71, he was elected Patriach of the Maronites on March 15, 2011, after getting more than two-thirds of the votes of the 39 bishops. The Mass for the inauguration of his patriarchate will be on March 25, 2011, in Bkerké, held the See of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate. As is custom for all Maronite patriarchs Rahi took the additional name Boutrous (Peter), who briefly held the see of Antioch before moving to Rome to become bishop there.
|
|
