Lebanese priest who baptized Muslim is abducted, then released

Photo Source: NaharNet

Catholic Culture -A Lebanese priest who baptized a Muslim woman has been kidnapped and released.

The daughter of a Shiite cleric “said she was physically and psychologically tortured by her father for converting to Christianity three years ago, although she is a 24-year-old adult,” said Maronite Catholic Bishop Simon Atallah of Baalbek. “I have received an unconfirmed report that she had recently fled to an unknown destination after her father forced her to marry someone.”

The kidnappers thought that Father Walid Gharious knew the woman’s whereabouts and later released him. The nation’s president condemned the kidnapping.

According to the prelate, the kidnapped is part of an escalating pattern of violence against local Catholics.

“Last Wednesday, unknown assailants fired gunshots at the house of a priest from the Kairouz family in the town of Nabha, and a similar incident occurred on Sunday before the start of the municipal elections, when shots were fired at the Our Lady Church in Nabha,” he said.

Maronite Catholics in Lebanon receive new patriarch

Patriarch Bechara Rai. Credit: Bkerke.org

Bkerke, Lebanon, (CNA).- Lebanon's Maronite Catholic Church has elected Bishop Bechara Rai, a 71-year-old monk, as its new patriarch.

“We carry Lebanon in our prayers, to regain its role in these difficult days that the east is living in,” announced the new patriarch after his election, referring to widespread instability throughout the Middle East.

“We pray for Lebanon especially to get out of its crisis,” he said, expressing hope that the country would soon manage to form a new government.

The former Bishop of Jbeil has become the Maronites' 77th leader, with the official title of “Patriarch of Antioch and All the East of the Maronites.” His successor, Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, retired on Feb. 26 at age 90.