Maronite Patriarch Beshara Boutros Rai called Sunday on the Lebanese officials to complete their duty and finalize the ministerial statement “in which they are not requested to solve the issues, but to include the constitutional principles and the projects that the cabinet considers as priorities within the short period of time before the presidential […]

    Towards the end of the 17th century, Cheikh Nemr son of Cheikh Abi Nassif Nawfal el Khazen from Ajaltoun, founded an establishment in Ballouneh aimed at helping out family members in distress and he allocated a lot of money and lands for this sake. Later on, he founded a monastery and built a […]

  President Michel Suleiman said Friday that the land, people and common values formed the country’s “permanent equation,” stressing that the Baabda Declaration was similar to the National Pact.   “The land, people and common values form the golden and permanent equation for the nation,” Suleiman said in a speech at the “My land: a […]

  Protesters are expected to join marches this weekend to call for a halt to the Fouad Boutros Highway project, which activists say will destroy historic buildings. Several heritage groups and other NGOs are protesting the project, which will see a new 1.3-km road link Ashrafieh with the Charles Helou motorway. The marches take place […]

Manal Akiki greets her husband Wissam George Akiki after his ordination as a priest in the the Maronite Catholic Church at St. Raymond Cathedral in St. Louis on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A married priest has been ordained by the Maronite Catholic Church in the United States for the first time in nearly a century. His wife and daughter were on hand to support him.

Wissam Akiki was welcomed by hundreds of supporters during a ceremony Thursday night at St. Raymond’s Maronite Cathedral in St. Louis. He called it a "historic day" and said he had been given two great blessings: marriage to his wife of 10 years, Manal, and "the dream to serve the Lord thanks and church as a priest."

Maronites are among more than a dozen Eastern Catholic church groups in the U.S. that accept the authority of the pope but have many of their own rituals and liturgy.

Eastern Catholic churches in the Middle East and Europe ordain married men. But the Vatican banned the practice in America in the 1920s, after Latin-rite bishops complained it was confusing for parishioners.

Pope John Paul II called for greater acceptance of Eastern Catholic traditions, and over the years popes have made exceptions on a case-by-case basis for married men to become Eastern Catholic priests in America. Pope Francis gave permission for Akiki to be ordained

"Almost half of our priests in Lebanon are married, so it’s not an unusual event in the life of the Maronite church, though in the United States it is," said Deacon Louis Peters, chancellor at St. Raymond’s.

  The irony of the US Embassy in Beirut’s recent travel advice to “exercise extreme caution in western-style areas” and “pay close attention to personal security at locations where westerners generally are known to congregate” was not lost on the Lebanese.   Within hours, locals had begun to post their satirical advice online for ex-pats […]

  In his first public appearance since his appointment as economy minister, Alain Hakim Wednesday urged the Lebanese to increase consumption to help revive the struggling economy. “I call upon the Lebanese people not to give in to security threats prevailing in Lebanon and to join their efforts in activating internal tourism and increasing their consumption […]

  Sources close to Baabda Palace say that President Michel Sleiman is in a hurry to draft Cabinet’s policy statement and have the government gain a vote of confidence from Parliament before March 5, the date set for the International Support Group for Lebanon’s conference in Paris that Sleiman will be attending. The sources pointed […]

  Coalition chairman Yariv Levin’s proposal to legally differentiate between Christian and Muslim Arabs passed its second and third readings in the Knesset Labor, Health, and Welfare Committee on Wednesday. Levin’s proposals would identify Christians as a minority group separate from Arabs, most of whom are Muslim, and give them their own, unique representation on the […]