POPE WRITES TO THE NEW MARONITE PATRIARCH

VATICAN CITY, 25 MAR 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father has granted the "Ecclesiastica Communio" requested of him in accordance with canon 76 para. 2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches by His Beatitude Bechara Rai, canonically elected as Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites by the Synod of Bishops of the Maronite Church meeting in Bkerke, Lebanon, on 15 March.

  For the occasion, Benedict XVI has also written a Letter to the new patriarch in which he says: "May the Blessed Mother of God, Our Lady of Lebanon, the Virgin of the Annunciation whose name you bear make you a messenger of unity, so that the Lebanese nation (thanks also to all the religious communities present in your country and to their ecumenical and inter-religious dynamism) may accomplish her mission of solidarity and peace, in the East and in the entire world".
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