08/28/2026
Congratulations to His Excellency Archbishop-elect Sharbel (Ghattas) Maroun, Archbishop-elect of Damascus!
With immense joy, profound gratitude, and great pride, the Parish Family of Saint Sharbel extends our heartfelt congratulations and prayerful best wishes to His Excellency Archbishop-elect Sharbel (Ghattas) Maroun upon his appointment as Archbishop of the Maronite Eparchy of Damascus.
For our parish community, this appointment carries a particularly deep and beautiful meaning. It is an extraordinary privilege and honor to witness one of our own, a son of Saint Sharbel Parish, called by the Church to shepherd one of the historic Maronite communities of the Middle East.
Long before the titles of Chorbishop or Archbishop-elect, Sharbel Maroun was a devoted parishioner among us. When his family came to the United States in 1983, Saint Sharbel became part of the soil in which his priestly vocation would take root. Here, his call to serve God and His Church continued to grow. In 1984, he answered that call by entering the seminary in Washington, D.C., dedicating himself to the study of philosophy and theology and to preparation for the priesthood.
In 1988, our parish was blessed to witness another important step in that journey when he was ordained to the diaconate here at Saint Sharbel. On January 6, 1989, his 27th birthday, he was ordained to the holy priesthood, beginning a ministry that would span parishes, generations, ministries, and communities across the United States and throughout the Maronite Church.
Over the decades that followed, Archbishop-elect Sharbel served the Church with faithfulness and distinction as a parish priest, youth director, vocations director, protopresbyter, administrator, ecumenical and interreligious representative, syncellus for clergy, member of the Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors, representative for the New Evangelization, and Chairman of the Board of Télé Lumière International. In 2015, the Church recognized his devoted service by investing him with the dignity of Chorbishop, and since 2020 he has served as Protosyncellus of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles.
And now, the Lord has called him once again.
This time, across an ocean and back toward the region of his birth, to take up the apostolic ministry as Archbishop of Damascus.
There is something profoundly moving in the journey. From Kfarselwan, Lebanon, to Saint Sharbel in New Jersey; from the seminary in Washington, D.C., to decades of service throughout the United States; and now to the ancient See of Damascus, the hand of God has been quietly writing a remarkable story of vocation, sacrifice, and service.
For the Maroun family, this is surely a moment of extraordinary pride and thanksgiving. For the Parish of Saint Sharbel, it is difficult to express what it means to know that a vocation first nurtured within our own parish family has now been entrusted with such a tremendous responsibility in the Universal Maronite Church.
Archbishop-elect Sharbel, you leave for this new mission carrying far more than a title. You carry with you the prayers, love, memories, and pride of a parish community that will always consider you one of its own.
We pray that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, will grant you wisdom in leadership, courage in adversity, compassion for the people entrusted to your care, and strength for the great responsibilities that now await you. May Our Lady of Lebanon wrap you in her mantle and accompany you in every step of your episcopal ministry. And may our beloved patron, Saint Sharbel, whose name you bear and whose parish helped nurture your vocation, intercede for you always.
May your ministry in Damascus become a source of renewal, unity, hope, and peace for the faithful you have been called to shepherd and for the entire region.
From all of us at the Parish of Saint Sharbel, congratulations, Sayidna Sharbel.
Today, our parish rejoices.
Today, the Maroun family rejoices.
And today, we give thanks to God for calling a son of our community to become a shepherd of His Church.
Ad multos annos! إلى سنين عديدة!
May God grant you many blessed years of faithful and fruitful service.
