audio interviews w/ Chaldean Bishop Sarhad & Maronite Bishop Gregory

[5Loaves]

EWTN Rome bureau chief Joan Lewis on "Vatican Insider" radio interviewed Chaldean Bishop Sarhad of San Diego, and Maronite Bishop Gregory of Brooklyn during the recent historic ad Limina visit where the US Eastern and Oriental Bishops came for the first time as a group for their ad Limina Apostolorum (“to the thresholds of the apostles”) visit to the Vatican. In past ad limina visits the US EC/OC bishops came to Rome individually with the Latin Church bishops of a Latin Church ecclesiastical region near them.

The interview with Bishop Sarhad Yousip Jammo is the May 26 segment. It begins 21 minutes into the segment-- just slide the slider ahead to that point if you don't want to hear the rest of the segment.

The interview with Bishop Gregory Mansour is 18 minutes into the May 19 segment. Bishop Gregory grew up in an area with no Maronite priest for their community until he was 18 and the Holy See sent a priest to their community in Flint, MI.

She did a number of interviews and broadcasts at the time of the Synod of Bishops of the Middle East, Oct. 2010.

In February 2010 at the request of the bishops of Iraq, Joan traveled to Iraq. The bishops were looking for a means of getting word out about the terrible plight of Christians in Iraq and the Middle East. That was her first exposure to Eastern/Oriental Catholics which resulted in close ties to many of the clergy and faithful there and unique English language coverage of the crises in the Church there. Here is one blog from that period. I can't seem to find other earlier blogs which are also referred to here where she wrote passionately about the situation there and also in Lebanon where she also was asked to observe and report.