Maronite Bishops Go Behind Closed Doors to Elect 77th Patriarch

The Synod of Maronite Bishops goes into retreat on Wednesday to elect the 77th church leader after Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.

Bkirki’s doors will close at 6:00 pm. The bishops will pray and hear lectures until Friday when the actual electoral process begins.

Bishop Roland Abu Jawdeh will preside over the electoral rounds. In the first session, a secretary will be elected and starting Friday the bishops will hold two electoral rounds in the morning and two in the afternoon until one of the bishops gets the two-thirds of the votes.

An Nahar daily said that 38 or 39 bishops will not attend the synod after John Shedid and Hektor Istfan Dwaihi refused to come to Lebanon from the U.S. over health reasons.

The newspaper also quoted church sources as saying that two other bishops, Georges Abu Saber and Youssef Massoud Massoud, could also not participate in the electoral process.

The sources said the election process would take several days only.

Another source at the Maronite church told As Safir daily that “there is no political influence in the elections.”

“The new patriarch will not deviate from Bkirki’s national principles. Evidently he would have a different approach than Patriarch Sfeir … but the gist on national issues will remain the same,” the source said.

Voice of Lebanon said Sfeir will address the Lebanese through the radio station a few hours before the retreat.