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 till 1934, 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. Paul Peter Meouchi was from 1969 until his death chairman of the Synod of the
Maronite Church and from 1970 until his death 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 the reconciliation among all the Lebanese, both Christians and Muslims. He was a supporter of the
Arab nationalism, thus standing in opposition to the pro-USA former
president of Lebanon
Camille Chamoun. Meouchi had also good relations with the Druze and was a personal friend and adviser of
Nazira Jumblatt, mother of
Kamal Jumblatt. He died on January 11, 1975, in the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate in
Bkerké, Lebanon, where he was buried. ==See also==