Card. Sandri on Lebanon visit

January 10, 2014 - Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches flew to Lebanon on Friday on a 4-day trip during which he will consecrate a new bishop and also express the Holy See’s closeness with Lebanon’s Christian community that suffering much because of the conflict raging in neighbouring Syria. The main purpose of his Jan. 10-13visit is the episcopal ordination on Saturday of Franciscan priest Fr. Georges Avou Khazen, the new Vicar Apostolic of Alep of the Latins in Syria. The following day, Sunday, after a Mass for the Redemptorist Fathers at Zahle in Bekaa valley, the cardinal will visit Syrian refugees at Marjayoun and make a contribution to a charity that aids them. On his way back he will stop at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Mantara or Awaiting at Maghdouche, in Saida. There, in an act of consecration he will invoke the protection of the Queen of Peace on Lebanon, Syria and the entire Middle East. Before flying back on Monday, he will meet some of the professors and students of the university run by the Maronite Antonian order.