Maximos V Hakim

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Patriarch Maximos V Hakim

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Maximos V Hakim (1908-2001) was elected Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch in 1967 and served until 2000. He guided the church through tubulent changes in the Middle East and rapid expansion in the Western hemisphere.

1 Life
2 Episcopate
3 Writings
4 1948 Nakba controversy
5 See also
6 External link:

[edit] Life

He was born George Selim Hakim at Tanta, Egypt May 18, 1908 and was educated locally and at Holy Family Jesuit school in Cairo. After completing his studies at St. Anne of Jerusalem, he was ordained a priest in the Basilica of St. Anne by Maximos IV Sayegh, then Archbishop of Tyre, on July 20,1930. As a young priest he taught for a year in the patriarchal school in Beirut before returning to Cairo in 1931.

[edit] Episcopate

He was consecrated Archbishop of St. John of Acre, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee, in Cairo on June 13, 1943, by Patriarch Cyril IX Moghabghab, assisted by the Archbishops Dionysios Kfoury and Peter Kamel Medawar, patriarchal auxiliaries. He was elected Patriarch by the Holy Synod at Ain Traz on November 22, 1967.

As a priest, he distinguished himself by his running of the Patriarchal College in Cairo and by the launching and publication of the review Le Lien. Later, as an archbishop, he built schools, a junior seminary, an orphanage, a home for the elderly and several churches. He took particular care for the clergy and for the religious and secular orders and he brought in several groups of Europeans come to integrate themselves into the Church. As archbishop he spearheaded efforts to provide relief for Palestinians during the 1948 exodus.

Under his guidance as Patriarch, a minor seminary was established at Damascus and later a major seminary for the formation of priests was opened at Raboueh in Lebanon. He later funded numerous scholarships for needy seminarians during the Lebanese civil war. He also oversaw the growth of the Melkite church in North and South America as many of the faithful emmigrated to the West.

[edit] Writings

A prolific writer, he is best remembered for his Arabic work Al Rabita and the French works, Message de Galiléerenc, and Pages d'Évangile lues en Galilée.

[edit] 1948 Nakba controversy

In the 1950´s Maximos V Hakim, then known as Monsignor George Hakim, bishop of Galilee, became involved in the fate of Palestinians of the two depopulated Christian villages of Kafr Bir'im and Iqrit. He alerted the Vatican and other Church authorities about what had happened, and lobbied for their return. A native of Kafr Bir'im, Elias Chacour, is the current Archbishop of Galilee.

Official Israeli publications have claimed that Maximos V Hakim reported exhortations to his flock to leave Palestine in 1948. For example, Israel's Abba Eban told the U.N. Special Political Committee in 1957 that the Archbishop had "fully confirmed' " that the Arabs were urged to flee by their own leaders.[1]

Erskine Childers investigated these claims, and wrote in the Spectator May 12, 1961:

"I wrote to His Grace, asking for his evidence of such orders. I hold signed letters from him, with permission to publish, in which he has categorically denied ever alleging Arab evacuation orders; he states that no such orders were ever given. He says that his name has been abused for years; and that the Arabs fled through panic and forcible eviction by Jewish troops."[2].

Patriarch Maximos died on June 29, 2001 in Beirut.