Joseph-Marie Raya

Joseph-Marie Raya (born August 15, 1916 in Zahlé , Lebanon , † June 10, 2005 in Barry's Bay , Ontario , Canada ) was Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Akka in Israel from 1968 to 1974 . He thus became the successor of the Patriarch of Antioch appointed Maximos V Hakim . In addition to being a theologian , he was also a civil rights activist and author . As archbishop he was known for his commitment to reconciliation between Christians and Jews and an interreligious dialogue . He was a passionate advocate of liturgy in the national languages .

emigration

Joseph-Marie Raya was born the seventh of eight children to the married couple Almez and Michail Raya. After completing elementary school at Oriental College, he studied in Paris and in 1937 entered the St. Anne's Seminary in Jerusalem . The seminary and the adjoining St. Anne's Church are run by the White Fathers . He was ordained priest in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in 1941 . He then taught at the College of the Patriarch of Antioch in Cairo and was expelled from the country in 1948 for his defense of women's rights ; he emigrated to the United States in 1949 .

In the United States and Canada

After emigrating to the USA, he initially worked as a vicar in the Melkite Greek Catholic Congregation of St. Anna in West Paterson , New Jersey . In 1952 he took over as pastor of the St. George Congregation in Birmingham , Alabama . During this time he formed a deep friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr. He marched with him on the demonstration marches and campaigned for equal rights for all people, as a result of which he fell into the clutches of the Ku Klux Klan and was injured by mistreatment . Together with Archbishop Thomas Joseph Toolen of Mobile-Birmingham , Raya organized civil rights meetings , helped with demonstrations and founded the first Catholic-Oriental mission station for African Americans in Birmingham . Raya became the first priest in the lay and priestly community "Madonna House Apostolate" founded by Catherine Doherty in 1947 in Combermere , Ontario, Canada.

Liturgy in the local language

As a young priest in Alabama, he advocated holding services in the respective national language . He translated the Gospels , the missal, and the Byzantine liturgy into English. He found a great advocate in Bishop Fulton John Sheen of Rochester , who as a media-effective Catholic bishop celebrated a Catholic mass in English on American television. Archbishop Toolen banned the use of the English language in his diocese in December 1959 and also banned Raya from using the English language in the Byzantine rite. Pope John XXIII decided in 1960 that the English language could be used in the Byzantine liturgy. This dispute could also be settled through the intervention of the Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh and as a result of the decisions of the Council. Patriarch Maximos IV appointed him Grand Archimandrite of Jerusalem and appointed him to the Melkite delegation for the Second Vatican Council . The council later decided on the possible use of the national languages ​​in the liturgy.

Bishop of Akka

On September 9, 1968, he was appointed Archbishop of Akka , Haifa , Nazareth and all of Galilee . The episcopal ordination took the Patriarch of Antioch Archbishop Maximos V Hakim ago when co-consecrators worked Archbishop Paul Achkar of Latakia and bishop of the Ruthenian Church Stephan John Kocisko of Pittsburgh (USA). Immediately after taking office in 1969, he was in the forefront of a peaceful and non-violent demonstration. Thousands of Arab Israelis and Jews remembered the villages of Bar'am and Ikrit, which were depopulated and destroyed in 1948 . As a Melkite bishop, he called for justice and peaceful negotiations between the citizens of Palestine and Israel. In 1972, in protest and in memory of the two towns, he ordered all churches to be closed on a Sunday in order to underline the mourning. With these actions, Raya gained a large following and became a political and religious attraction at the same time. With his demands to rebuild and settle the two destroyed villages, he not only opposed the synod of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, but also received resistance from Rome . With his last campaign to sell church lands to poor Muslim farmers, the counter pressure grew stronger. Eventually, massive pressure from his own church, the Holy See and the Israeli government led to his resignation. His successor was Archbishop Maximos Salloum .

He became active again and was apostolic administrator of Banyas from 1987 to 1989 , the archeparchy was headed in the secondary office of Habib Bacha , the archbishop of Beirut and Jbeil . He was co-consecrator of Archbishops Boulos Nassif Borkhoche SMSP of Bosra and Hauran in Syria , Cyrille Salim Bustros SMSP of Baalbek in Lebanon and in 1989 Antoine Hayek BC of Banyas.

After the resignation

He resigned on August 21, 1974 with simultaneous appointment as titular archbishop of Scythopolis from his office and was senior archbishop of Akka until his death on June 10, 2005 . Even the then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir did not succeed in preventing him from resigning. In his last pastoral letter he underlined once again his wish for peaceful coexistence between Arabs, Jews, Christians and Muslims and called for further interreligious dialogue. He left the Middle East and moved to Canada in 1975. He continued his new pastoral work at Madonna House in Combermere. From 1987 to 1989 he worked in Beirut and Banyas, and in 1991 he returned to Canada. Raya died on June 10, 2005 at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in Barry's Bay.

Works

Raya authored several books including hymn books, theological works, and monographs on church history . Most of his publications were written in English.

Web links

• Biography (English)
• Entry on Joseph-Marie Raya on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on June 13, 2020.
• Entry on gcatholic.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Barry's Bay, Ontario, Canada en: Barry's Bay, Ontario
2. ↑ Madonna House Apostolate www.madonnahouse.org
3. ^ Israel - Surviving in Exile (DER SPIEGEL 36/1972 of August 28, 1972) www.spiegel.de
4. ↑ St. Francis Memorial Hospital www.sfmhosp.com
5. ↑ Author Profile: Archbishop Joseph Ray www.madonnahouse.org ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

predecessor	Office	successor
Habib Bacha SMSP	Administrator of Banyas 1987–1989	Antoine Hayek