Saint Maron comes to St. Peter's

As the Maronite church celebrates the sixteenth centennial of its founder Saint Maron, Pope Benedict on Wednesday called the faithful to look to the 5^th century Syrian monk as an example to follow. The Holy Father was speaking during a brief ceremony for the unveiling of a new statue of the saint placed in a niche along the exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica before greeting pilgrims at the General Audience.

Among those attending the ceremony: The Holy See’s Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Maronite Bishops, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and a group of ministers representing all faiths, Ambassadors to the Holy See, and Maronite faithful from Lebanon and the Rome area. The Spanish sculptor Marco Augusto Dueñas who carved the sculpture out of Carrara marble, was also present.

In blessing the statue, the Holy Father prayed that the Lord would “give us the gift of announcing your Gospel unhesitatingly" – even to the extent of “giving one’s life.”

Tracey McClure spoke to one of the Maronite guests present at the unveiling. May Chidiac is the Lebanese television journalist who survived a car bomb in Jounieh, Lebanon in September 2005 -just seven months after the assassination of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. She was widely known as an outspoken critic of Syria.

She explains her near-death experience led her to write “Heaven can wait for me,” a book in which she attributes her “miraculous” survival to the intervention of her guardian angels.

“It’s a nice book,” she says, “because angels were protecting me… I believe in miracles. Despite putting explosives under the seat in my car… I lost my leg and my left hand…in spite of all this I am still here after 33 surgeries.”

“I’m so happy to be here… we are the disciples of Saint Maron. We came especially from Lebanon to celebrate this very special occasion…to have the saint here beside all the (other) saints in the Vatican. It means a lot.”

“I think that it’s thanks to him maybe that there are still Christians in the Middle East.”

Listen to Tracey McClure’s interview: