Paul Peter Meouchi

Moran Mor Paul II Peter Meouchi (born April 1, 1894, Jezzine, Lebanon – died on January 11, 1975, Bkerké, Lebanon), (or Boulos Boutros el-Meouchi, Meoushi, ) was the 74th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch from 1955 until his death in 1975. He was made a cardinal in 1965.

Life Moran Mor Paul Peter Meouchi was born in Jezzine, Lebanon on April 1, 1894. Bechara El Khoury was his second cousin.

He was ordinated priest in Rome on December 7, 1917, and served as secretary of the Maronite bishops of Saida and of Tyre. After having attended a visitation of the bishop of Tyre in the United States in 1920, he remained in the United States until 1934 by serving the Maronite communities particularly in Indiana, Connecticut and California.

He was elected Maronite bishop of Tyre on April 29, 1934, and consecrated on December 8, 1934, at Bkerké by Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, Anthony Peter Arida. His co-consecrators were Augustin Bostani, Eparch of Sidon, and Pierre Feghali, Titular bishop of Epiphania in Syria. He chose as episcopal motto Gloria Libani data est ei. On February 22, 1965, he was created Cardinal by Pope Paul VI, being the first Maronite to become cardinal. He was elevated - as usual of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs, as a result of the motu proprio Ad purpuratorum patrum collegium - to the rank of cardinal-bishop without granting a suburbicarian diocese.

Meouchi was from 1969 to his death the chairman of the Synod of the Maronite Church and from 1970 to his death the chairman of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon.

From a political point of view, his action as Patriarch of the Maronite was intended to promote reconciliation among all Lebanese, both Christians and Muslims. A supporter of Arab nationalism, he thus stood in opposition to the pro-American former president of Lebanon Camille Chamoun. Meouchi had also good relations with the Druze and was a personal friend and advisor of Nazira Jumblatt, the mother of Kamal Jumblatt.

He died on January 11, 1975, in the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate in Bkerké, Lebanon, where he was buried.