Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
July 17, 2002
Maronite Catholics worldwide gather for California conference
By Jennifer C. Vergara
LONG BEACH, Calif. (CNS) — Maronite Catholics from all over the country and around the world gathered for a June 19-23 conference that one participant described as "a turning point in our history as Maronites."
The conference, "Maronites of the World United and Universal," was sponsored by the International Maronite Foundation. It attracted Maronites from many nations, including Lebanon, Mexico, Canada, France and South Africa. The last such conference was held five years ago, also in Southern California.
According to Chorbishop Gregory Mansour, vicar general and chancellor of the St. Louis-based Maronite Diocese of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, this year's event was "an initiative on the part of the people who want to develop a community — like `koinonia' or `communio' in Greek — among Maronites throughout the world."
Indeed, throughout the conference, many Maronites lamented the lack of unity among them, which they pegged to their worldwide dispersion from their homeland of Lebanon during its civil war in the 1970s.
This disunity is exacerbated by what James Kaddo describes as an independent streak. "We are adventurous. We are industrious. On the other hand, we're not team players," said Kaddo, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.
"We face very critical questions as a Maronite church," said Edward Salem, chairman of the International Maronite Foundation. "Our members emigrate and become members of the new societies in which they live and tend to assimilate too well.
"We need to ask the question: Why are we Maronite Catholics? What keeps us in our church? How do we keep our youth coming to our ethnically oriented church?"
These and other issues were addressed in several panels and open discussion. Topics included: "State of the Maronite Church: Laity and Clergy Response to Patriarchal Lead"; "Political Activism: Electronic Advocacy"; and "What Should the Maronite Patriarchy Be in the 21st Century?"
Chorbishop Mansour said organizers and participants hoped to achieve many things with the conference.
"We want to impress upon the American government the beauty of Lebanon, the civilized Lebanon," he told The Tidings, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. "We want to impress upon the Lebanese government that its people are longing for human rights and freedom to express even dissent. And we want a better humanitarian outreach to Lebanon and to the Middle East Christians."
As for the Maronite Church itself, Chorbishop Mansour said a synod would be held among Maronites, clergy and laity alike, around the world.
Because of the conference, Kaddo said, "we feel very, very strongly that this is a turning point in our history as Maronites."
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