Paul Peter Meouchi
Pierre -Paul Méouchi (Arabic: بولس الثاني بطرس المعوشي in German transcription also Bulos Boutros Mauschi; born April 1, 1894 in Jezzine, Ottoman Empire, † January 11, 1975 in Bkerke ( Jounieh ), Mount Lebanon ) was Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and all the East and Lebanese Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
Life
Paul Méouchi - his real name - studied at the College de la Sagesse in Aschrafiyya and later in Rome at the College of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide and at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He received in Rome on December 7, 1917 the ordination to the priesthood and served as secretary of the Maronite bishops of Sidon and Tyre. After a visitation of the Bishop of Tyre in the United States in 1920 he remained until 1934 in the U.S. and worked mainly in the Maronite communities in Indiana, Connecticut and California.
On April 19, 1934 Méouchi was appointed Maronite Bishop of Tyre. The Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, Antoine Boutros Arida, donated to him on December 8, 1934 of the same year in Bkerke episcopal ordination. As a motto he chose Gloria Libani data est ei ( " The glory of Lebanon will give him / her a gift ," Isaiah 35.2 EU). On May 25, 1955, he was elected by the Synod of the Maronite community in Bkerke the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, and took, as with Maronite Patriarch usual, in addition to the name of Pierre / Boutros (Peter) in his name on.
Méouchi took part in the first three sessions of the Second Vatican Council, where he defended the rights of the patriarchs, to prevent the exodus of Christians from the Middle East. Paul VI. took him on 22 February 1965 as the first Maronite Cardinal to the College of Cardinals. Politically, his work was as Maronite Patriarch to reconciliation among all Lebanese, Muslims and Christians, endeavored. He was an advocate of pan-Arabism and thus stood in contrast to the pro-American Lebanese President Camille Chamoun. He died on January 11, 1975 at the seat of the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke, where he was buried.