On the occasion of the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, a celebration through which the Virgin Mary wished to remind humanity of the importance of repentance, prayer, detachment from worldly life, and raising the heart and mind toward eternal life, on May 13, 2026, Monsignor Raphael Traboulsi, Episcopal Vicar General, accompanied Their Excellencies Bishop Mar Mathias Charles Mourad, Patriarchal Vicar for the Syriac Catholics, and Bishop Mar Krikor Badishah, Patriarchal Vicar for the Armenian Catholics, on a visit to Orthodox monasteries in northern Lebanon. The visitors met with the abbots and visited the monasteries’ churches, discussing the challenges facing monastic life in Lebanon and the Middle East and the need to strengthen the traditional contemplative way of life founded on prayer and work. This spiritual path has increasingly attracted many people in response to the dominance of materialism and consumerist thinking in the contemporary world, which has become deprived of many moral standards and Christian values amid globalization and the overwhelming influence of electronic media on human thought. Everyone raised prayers for peace in Lebanon and for the continued success of Catholic-Orthodox ecumenical activity, which makes the rapprochement between the two sister Churches a shining sign and a living witness leading believers to Christ the Lord, who desired that His faithful followers be united in truth just as He and the Father are one.
العربية