Today, a good friend of CNEWA, Maronite Father Marwan Tabet, was named bishop of the Eparchy of Saint-Maron de Montreal of the Maronites by Pope Benedict XVI. The bishop-elect was born in Bhamdoun, Lebanon, in 1961, entered the Congregation of the Lebanese Maronite Missionaries in 1980, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1986. Father Marwan, who is known throughout Lebanon as a man of action who knows how to get things done — and well. As the general secretary of Lebanon’s Catholic schools, Father Marwan raised the standards for Catholic education throughout the country, offering superb educations for Christian and Muslim students in the poorer sections of the country as well as students in the affluent neighborhoods of Beirut.
In the July 2008 edition of ONE, we focused on Father Marwan and his efforts with Catholic schools in Lebanon:
In many parts of Lebanon, [Catholic schools] represent the last forum where Christian and Muslim youth meet and grow up knowing one another. “Catholic schools are natural places where children can come together, sit next to each other and get to know the other person slowly but surely,” said Maronite Father Marwan Tabet, who heads Lebanon’s General Secretariat of Catholic Schools.
“It’s not like you have to shove it down the throats of people — and the kids grow to know each other, to love each other, to accept each other. That’s very important.”
Father Marwan believes the student body’s religious diversity ranks among the greatest strengths of the nation’s Catholic school system. These schools, he said, are a “place where there is no proselytism, where children are not converted to Christianity. On the contrary, they are open to the other culture. They are accepted and they are cared for with the best of means and possibilities.”
Congratulations Bishop-elect Marwan, and God’s blessings on your new assignment.