\t\t\t\t81<\/p>\n
(OSV News) \u2014\u00a0A parish priest in Texas has been tapped by Pope Leo XIV<\/a> to lead Mexico\u2019s Maronite Catholics.<\/p>\n The pope has nominated Maronite Father Milad T. Yaghi as bishop of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of the Martyrs of Lebanon in Mexico (\u201cNuestra Se\u00f1ora de los M\u00e1rtires del L\u00edbano en M\u00e9xico\u201d).<\/p>\n The eparchy, established in 1995 by St. John Paul II and covering the whole of Mexico, counts some 200,000 lay faithful and 10 parishes.<\/p>\n Bishop-elect Yaghi succeeds the eparchy\u2019s apostolic administrator, Maronite Father Elie Mikhael, who was appointed in 2024 by Pope Francis.<\/p>\n News of the bishop-elect\u2019s appointment was publicized Oct. 12<\/a> in Washington by Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., who made the announcement since Bishop-elect Yaghi currently serves within his jurisdiction.<\/p>\n About the bishop-elect<\/p>\n A member of the Congregation of Maronite Lebanese Missionaries \u2014 which he entered at age 13 in 1977 \u2014 Bishop-elect Yaghi has served as pastor of Our Lady of the Cedars Maronite Mission for more than three decades.<\/p>\n Having completed his studies at the Coll\u00e8ge Des Ap\u00f4tres and the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, both in Lebanon, Bishop-elect Yaghi was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. He then attended the University of Strasbourg, where he obtained a master\u2019s degree in Catholic theology, and was appointed assistant pastor for a parish in Metz, France.<\/p>\n In 1991, then-Father Yaghi was sent to San Antonio, Texas, to serve while also traveling to Houston to celebrate Mass. He eventually relocated to Houston to, as his parish biography notes, \u201cembark on a challenge and personal dream of building a church.\u201d<\/p>\n Our Lady of the Cedars Maronite Mission rapidly expanded under his leadership from several families to some 250. According to the mission\u2019s website, there are currently over 700 families registered to Our Lady of the Cedars, which the mission states is \u201cthe second largest Maronite parish in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Eparchy receives news with joy<\/p>\n In a Facebook post about the Oct. 12 announcement, the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of the Martyrs of Lebanon in Mexico expressed its joy, saying, \u201cLet us rejoice and give thanks to God for our new Eparch (Bishop).\u201d<\/p>\n The Mexican Bishops\u2019 Conference<\/a> also joined the eparchy in prayer, saying in a social media post: \u201cWe wish Bishop Milad Tannous Yaghi a fruitful ministry in the new episcopal responsibility that the Lord has entrusted to him.\u201d<\/p>\n The Maronite Catholic Church is one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches that, along with the Roman Catholic Church, comprise the universal Catholic Church.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association<\/a> \u2014 a papal agency serving the churches and peoples of the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe \u2014 both the U.S. and Latin America are home to flourishing Maronite communities, with more than 1.3 million Maronite Catholics in Latin America alone.<\/p>\n Gina Christian<\/a> is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"81 (OSV News) \u2014\u00a0A parish priest in Texas has been tapped by Pope Leo XIV to lead Mexico\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-464550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}