On 30 May 1962,
Pope John XXIII established the Maronite Apostolic Exarchate (the equivalent in the Eastern Churches of a Vicariate Apostolic) for Maronite Catholics in Brazil and appointed Bishop
Francis Mansour Zayek to head it. He was the first bishop appointed to operate outside the historical areas of the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East to serve in the Maronite
diaspora. He was officially ordained bishop on 5 August 1962 as an
auxiliary bishop of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, and
titular bishop of
Callinicum dei Maroniti. Zayek served as bishop for the Maronite Catholics of that country until 1966, when he was transferred by the
Holy See to the United States. of November 29, 1971, became then an ecclesiastical circumscription of the
Maronite Church, one of the
sui juris Churches of the
Catholic Church, separating itself from the
Ordinariate for Eastern Catholics in Brazil, erected on November 14, 1951. Under these conditions the bishop or eparch is the ordinary of the diocese. Bishop João Chedid resigned in 1990 by reason of advanced age and poor health and died in Lebanon on 30 July 1991. The third bishop of the Maronite Church was
Joseph Mahfouz who was elected on June 9, 1990, and consecrated on August 12, 1990, in Lebanon. He arrived in Brazil on October 6, 1990, taking possession on the 21st of that month and remained in front of the Maronite Archbishopric of Brazil, retiring after completing 75 years old in December 2006. The fourth Maronite bishop of Brazil is Dom
Edgard Madi who officially assumed the duties of the highest Maronite post in Brazil, on December 10, 2006. ==Status==