Pope Francis turned to the Merrimack Valley, specifically to St. Anthony of Padua (Maronite) Parish and its pastor, Father Elie Mikhael, when looking for someone to lead the Maronite Eparchy (diocese) in Mexico. Its actual name is the Eparchy of Our Lady of the Martyrs of Lebanon in Mexico City of the Maronites. The territory of the eparchy is the entire country of Mexico.

Spread across the country, the eparchy has 10 parishes, 15 priests, six belong to the eparchy itself, and nine to Maronite religious orders; an estimated 200,000 lay faithful members of the eparchy can also look to several religious, both women and men, for their pastoral services.

When Father Mikhael takes up his new responsibilities in Mexico on Aug. 20, 2024, he will have a title almost as long as that of the eparchy -- apostolic administrator "ad nutum Sanctae Sedis," that is, at the direction of the Holy See. An apostolic administrator governs the place where he is assigned as such in the pope's name. So, even though Father Mikhael is not ordained a bishop, he will govern the eparchy in every way a bishop would, except anything that would require a bishop. This would principally mean ordinations of other bishops, of priests, and deacons.

Father Mikhael was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 8, 1969, one of the two sons of the late Hares Mikhael Bejjani and Akele Abi Sleiman. His brother, Anthony, is married to his wife, Colette, and they are the parents of Eli Mikhael, Father Elie's only nephew. His seminary formation was in his native Lebanon at the Patriarchal Seminary and Holy Spirit University. The auxiliary bishop of Antioch, the late Paul Emil Saade ordained him a priest for the eparchy of Batroun on Aug. 19, 1995.

During his 30 years of priestly ministry, Father Mikhael has served in a variety of assignments both in Lebanon and the United States. He has been involved in ministry to young people and teenagers in both nations, as seminary director in Lebanon and in parishes in his homeland and in several states, including Miami, Fla., and Charlotte and Raleigh, N. Car.

Between 2006 and 2014, he served in Colombia and Peru, establishing new Maronite parishes and missions and acquiring fluency in Spanish. In 2014, he arrived, or returned, to Lawrence, this time as pastor of his Lawrence parish. From 1998 to 2004, he was a parochial vicar there, and during that time, he also obtained a master's degree in counseling and psychology at Boston College.

Our own archdiocese has been blessed for well over a century with the presence of our Catholic sisters and brothers of the Maronite Church. There are two other Maronite parishes within the territory of the archdiocese, Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon, Boston, and St. Theresa, Brockton. Those parishes belong to the eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn of the Maronites, in which Father Mikhael is incardinated. Over the years, both the clergy and the lay faithful of those parishes have freely interacted and often worshiped together with the archdiocesan parishes in their areas.

Father Mikhael is widely known in the Merrimack Valley and participates in the activities of parishes there, in the events which Merrimack Regional Bishop Robert F. Hennessey organizes and hosts for the clergy of the region; and last February, he joined the Boston Priests Retreat at Bethany Center in Florida.

Father Mikhael has extensive pastoral experience in many fields of priestly endeavor as well as a facility with languages; all these, along with his own gregarious personality, will serve the Maronite family in Mexico very well.