Pope accepts resignation of 90-year-old patriarch of Maronite Catholic Church

(March 01, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir, the 90-year-old patriarch or head of the eastern-rite Maronite Catholic Church, based Lebanon. In a letter on Saturday, Pope Benedict said the cardinal began his ministry as patriarch of the Maronite Church in 1986, "in the turmoil of the war that bloodied Lebanon for too many years. With the ardent desire for peace for your country, you have guided this church and traveled the world to comfort your people who were forced to emigrate." "Peace finally came back," the pope said, and while it is "always fragile," it continues to reign in Lebanon. As the head of an Eastern-rite Catholic Church, Cardinal Sfeir could have served for life but chose to ask the Pope to accept his resignation. Born May 15, 1920, in Reyfoun, Lebanon, Cardianl Sfeir attended the seminary in Beirut and studied at the theology school of the Jesuit-run St. Joseph University in the capital. He was ordained to the priesthood a week before his 30th birthday. In 1956, he was named secretary of the patriarchate, and the Maronite bishops elected him to be a bishop in June 1961. He was elected the Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East in 1986, and Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal in 1994. His successor will be elected at a meeting of the Maronite Synod of Bishops, in Bkerke, later this month.