(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 15.02.2023).- Published on Wednesday, January 15, was the appointment of Lebanese priest Father Michel Jalakh, O.A.M. as Secretary of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches. Also made known was the appointment of a new member of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints: Cardinal António Augusto dos Santos Marto, Bishop Emeritus of Leiria-Fatima, Portugal.
Father Jalakh was born on August 27, 1966 in Baouchrieh, Lebanon. He made his first religious profession on August 15, 1983, in the Maronite Order and was ordained a priest on April 21, 1991. From December 2000 to July 2008 he was Secretarial Attaché of the former Congregation for the Oriental Churches. He received a Doctorate in Ecclesiology from the Pontifical Oriental Institute of Rome, Italy, in 2008. From 2013 to 2018m he was Secretary General of the Council of Churches of the Middle East and Member of the Commission of Ecumenical Relations of the Assembly of Patriarchs and Catholic Bishops of Lebanon. A Professor of the Antonina University of Baabda, he was appointed Rector of the same in 2017.
