CP/2012/nhc/05
Gregorios III: Pilgrim for Peace and Reconciliation
On 7 and 8 March 2012, in the context of a European round-trip to the main episcopal conferences and seats of government, H. B. Gregorios III, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem held significant conversations with Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris and Ordinary of France’s Eastern Catholics, with Mr Henri de Raincourt, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs responsible for Cooperation, and with the Vice-Presidents of the National Assembly and Senate. The Patriarch was accompanied by Mgr Georges Bacouni, Archbishop of Tyre.
A pilgrim for peace and reconciliation, Gregorios III had come to talk about his continuing concern to see peace and reconciliation reign in the Arab world and Syria in particular.
Furthermore, His Beatitude was received by Rev Charbel Maalouf B.C., priest of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, Paris’s Melkite Greek Catholic parish, and representative of His Beatitude in Paris, flanked by members of his Parish Council and community, for an overview of parish life and to see how far advanced were the preparations for the European Melkite Convention on 1, 2 and 3 November 2012 at Aubazine.
Rabweh, 8 March 2012