Volume 41, Number 3 • Summer 2011 How great are your works, O LORD ! In wisdom you have wrought them all! OPHIA (Psalm 103:24) THE JOURNAOL OF THE MELPKIITE CATHHOLIIC EPARCHIY OF NAEWTON SST J M C E N Inside: AAxxiiooss!! 47th National Convention Page 00 Story Title Page 00 AAxxiiooss!! Story Title Page 00 AAxxiiooss!! EEnntthhrroonneemmeenntt ooff BBiisshhoopp NNiicchhoollaass SSaammrraa s s t t THE JOURNAL OF THE n n EPARCHY OF NEWTON FOR e e t t MELKITE CATHOLICS n n OPHIA IN THE UNITED STATES o o S OPHIA 3S VFW Parkway, West Roxbury, MA 02132 • www.melkite.org C C Phone: (617) 323-9922 • Fax: (617) 323-0188 • Email: [email protected] Published quarterly by the Eparchy of Newton. ISSN 0194-7958. Made possible in part by the Catholic Home Mission Committee and a bequest of the Rev. Allen Maloof. PUBLISHER : MOST REV . N ICHOLAS J. S AMRA , E PARCH EDITOR -IN -C HIEF : Rt. Rev. Robert Rabbat PRODUCTION : Deacon Paul Leonarczyk DESIGN AND LAYOUT : Doreen Pierson The Publisher waives all copyright to this issue. Contents may be distributed free and with - out special permission in publications that are distributed free. Wherever possible, please include a credit line, indicating the name of SOPHIA magazine. Unsolicited manuscripts, articles, and letters to the editor are welcomed. The editors assume no responsibility for lost manuscripts or photos. The content of all articles, past, present and future, remains the expressed personal opinion of the individual author and may not reflect, in its The Good Shepherd entirety, the opinion of the Melkite Eparchy of Newton. Icon written by Chady In This Issue Share with us! Enthronement of Bishop Nicholas Samra ..........................................3-9 Have you ever dreamed of being a Au Revoir Beloved Archbishop ............................................................10 writer? Perhaps having your voice Bible Study Group ..............................................................................11 heard on the printed page? Is there a subject that you A Lenten Afternnon of Recollection ....................................................11 have wanted to express or “Blessed are the Merciful” ..................................................................12 a story that you are excited Archbishop Chacour visits Saint Basil Seminary ................................13 to tell? We would love to hear The Joseph M. Rowey and Ossin Rowey Memorial Scholarship ..........15 from you! A Dual Celebration ............................................................................15 A Community to Imitate ....................................................................16 Along with welcoming updates and God Bless the Ladies ..........................................................................17 photos from all of our parishes, An Unforgettable Experience ..............................................................18 manuscripts articles and letters to Alive and Growing ..............................................................................19 the editor from our parishioners A Walk Through James ........................................................................19 perspective are needed. Eastern Catholic Pastors Gather in the South ....................................20 50th Priesthood Anniversary ..............................................................21 Submissions will be subject to review by the editorial staff and only those approved The “$200 for 100 Meals” Deal ..........................................................22 by the publisher will be published. MAYA, Pax Romana, and the United Nations ....................................23 47th Annual Melkite Convention in Photos ........................................24 All submissions can be sent to: NAMW ................................................................................................27 E-mail: [email protected] 47th Annual Melkite Convention ........................................................29 MAYA 2011: An “Ecumenical” Retreat ................................................31 USPS: SOPHIA Letterbox We Are All Cousins ............................................................................32 451 West Madison Avenue In Memoriam ......................................................................................33 Placentia, CA 92870 Blessed Pope John Paull II ..................................................................34 Nazif Ibn Yumn ........................................................................................35 Near East Christians: Are they Second-Class Citizens ..............................36 SOPHIA welcomes and encourages letters Father Charles’ Famous Potato Kibbee Charity Luncheon ........................37 from readers. Please send them to SOPHIA Archbishop’s Appeal 2010 ........................................................................38 Letterbox, 451 West Madison Avenue, Placentia, CA 92870. Or send them via Front Cover and enthronement photos were taken by e-mail to [email protected] † Matthew Lomanno Photography, Manchester, NH 2 SOPHIA • Summer 2011 BENEDICT BISHOP – SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD o our venerable brother Nicholas proven qualities and pastoral experience, James Samra, until now Titular which were clearly shown during your pre - TBishop of Gerasa, appointed Bishop vious ministry there as auxiliary bishop. of the Eparchy of Newton for Greek Therefore, by our apostolic authority, Melkites, greetings and apostolic blessing. we release you from the bond of the The truly important office we exercise as Titular See of Gerasa, and we appoint you supreme shepherd of the Lord’s entire flock Bishop of the Eparchy of Newton for requires of us today, among other things, to Greek Melkites, together with all the provide fittingly for the Eparchy of Newton rights and obligations granted by the for Greek Melkites, currently vacant owing norm of the Code of Canons of the east - to the canonical transfer – which received ern churches. Indeed, we mandate that our approval – of His Excellency the Most you inform your clergy and your people Reverend Cyrille Salim Bustros (of the about this letter, and we urge them to give Society of the Missionaries St. Paul) to the you a warm welcome and to remain con - Metropolitan Archiepiscopal See of Beirut tinually in communion with you, as, each tion of the Most Holy Mother of God, be and Jbeil for Greek Melkites. day, they hold fast to the divine precepts always with you and with your ecclesial After listening to our venerable brother, and the narrow way of the Gospel. community, which is so very dear to us. His Eminence Leonardo Sandrl, Cardinal Finally, venerable brother, nourish the Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the of the Holy Roman Church and Prefect of faithful entrusted to you by making use second day of the month of July, in the the Congregation for the Oriental especially of charity, the chief virtue of year of the Lord two thousand eleven, the Churches, you, venerable brother, seemed shepherds: for we pasture only to the seventh of our pontificate. suitable for governing the Eparchy of degree that we love. May the light and Newton for Greek Melkites, owing to your joy of the Holy Spirit, under the protec- Pope Benedict XVI Speech of Archbishop Cyril S. Bustros At the enthronement Liturgy of Bishop Nicholas Samra as Eparch of Newton In the name of the Father and of the Son and 21:14) The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen of the Holy Spirit! Your Excellencies, Gentium of the Second Vatican Council Reverend Fathers, dear brothers and sisters, teaches: “ The Bishops have by divine insti - Christ is among us! He is and always will be! tution taken the place of the Apostles as Pastors of the Church, and whoever listens even years ago, on the 18th of to them is listening to Christ and whoever August 2004, I was installed in this despises them despises Christ and Him SCathedral being transferred from the Who sent Christ. ” (# 20) (Cf. Luke 10:16) Eparchy of Ba’albeck in Lebanon where I As successors of the Apostles, Bishops served during 16 years as Archbishop. And receive the grace and the responsibility to now after seven years spent as Eparch of safeguard the mark of apostolicity in the Newton, I am transferred to Beirut to serve Church. In order that the living Gospel might there as Archbishop Metropolitan. always be preserved in its entirety in the Wherever we serve as bishops, either in Church, the Apostles left Bishops as their the Middle East or in the West, we are all at successors, entrusting to them their own the service of the One, Holy, Catholic and Magisterial task. This is why Bishops, gener - Apostolic Church. We are “Successors of ation after generation, are called to safeguard the Apostles”. This title lies at the root of and to hand on Sacred Scripture and to pro - I want to thank you for the work you the ministry of the Bishop and his mission. mote the Tradition, that is, the proclamation did for the Eparchy of Newton first as Bishops, as members of the Apostolic of the one Gospel and the one faith, in com - priest then as Auxiliary Bishop. And I College, are intimately united to Jesus plete fidelity to the teaching of the Apostles. want to thank all the priests, the deacons, Christ, who continues to choose and to send This is what I tried to do with God’s the nuns and all the lay people who coop - his Apostles. As a successor of the Apostles, grace during my ministry as Archbishop of erated with me during my ministry in this by virtue of his Episcopal ordination