New Maronite Apostolic Exarch to Africa speaks to Vatican Radio about new job, Syrian crisis

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has erected the new Apostolic Exarchate for the Eastern Catholic rite Maronite faithful resident in Western and Central Africa, in ad Ibadan, Nigeria. Vatican Radio first reported the news of the creation of the new semi “diocese” when the Vatican announced the decision last week. Mgr. Simon Faddoul was nominated by Pope Francis to be the first Apostolic Exarch to the region. He currently serves as President of Caritas Lebanon, assisting more than one million Syrian refugees who have flooded across the border to escape the ongoing conflict in their homeland. Mgr. Faddoul was also appointed apostolic visitor for the Maronite faithful resident in Southern Africa.

In an interview with Tracey McClure, Mgr. Faddoul explains what an Apostolic Exarchate is, and sheds some light on the Catholic Church’s eastern rite Maronite faithful in Africa, many of whom come from Lebanon and Syria.

The new Apostolic Exarchate for the Maronite Church in Africa, Mgr. Faddoul explains, is not the first of its kind. Pope John XXIII established a similar Exarchate in Brazil in May 1962. Some 3 to 4 million Maronites are believed to live outside their homeland, many in Africa, North and South America, and Europe.

Listen to Tracey McClure’s extended interview with Mgr. Simon Faddoul in which he also speaks of the recent Donor’s Conference in Kuwait to raise funds to aid Syrian refugees, his own work with more than one million Syrian refugees who have flooded into Lebanon, and his hopes and expectations for the Geneva 2 peace conference on Syria: