Dear Saint Maron Family,
This is the last time I address you as pastor of Saint Maron Church. By virtue of becoming a bishop, I am no longer a member of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles. The result is that I must resign the office of pastor of this wonderful and magnificent church community in northeast Ohio, a region of the country that I called home for the past 14 years. Saying goodbye is never easy, but believing this is God’s will ease the pain of a heavy heart, if only a little.
I want to thank you, again, for your prayers, cards and letters during these past months. Your love and kindness give me the courage and strength to embark on this next journey.
In all the decisions I have made in my priestly life, I have always tried to do what is best for the Church. Throughout my tenure at Saint Maron Church, I have felt it was my solemn and sacred duty to preserve the unity of the parish and set its future on solid foundations.
As I recall the high hopes for Saint Maron Church with which we began our journey together, I feel a great sadness that I will not be here working on your behalf to achieve those hopes in building the new Saint Maron Church in Independence, Oh. But in turning over direction of the parish to Father Elias Yazbeck, I know, as I relayed to Bishop Zaidan when I nominated him for this assignment, that the leadership of Saint Maron Church will be in good hands.
In passing the baton to Father Elias, I also do so with the profound sense of the weight of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders and, therefore, of the understanding, the patience, the cooperation he will need from all of you.
As he assumes that responsibility, he will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future, the first essential thing to do is to rally behind him and to embrace those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our strength and unity as fellow Maronite’s.
I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of my term of office. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of Saint Maron Church.
To those who have worked with me during these past fourteen years, to my parishioners, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my vision for Saint Maron Church because they believed it was right, I will be eternally grateful for your support. It has been one of the great privileges in my life to have served alongside the wonderful people of Saint Maron Church.
And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say that I leave with no bitterness toward those who have disagreed with me, because all of us, in the final analysis, have been concerned with the good of Saint Maron Church, however our judgments might differ.
To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every Maronite in northeast Ohio. In leaving, I do so with this prayer: May God’s grace be with you in all the days ahead.
Bishop Peter Karam