[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 26094]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO BISHOP GREGORY MANSOUR

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DALE E. KILDEE

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 1, 2007

  Mr. KILDEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to day to honor the Most Reverend 
Gregory John Mansour on the 25th anniversary of his ordination. Bishop 
Mansour will be honored at Divine Liturgy and festivities on Sunday, 
October 7th in my hometown of Flint, Michigan.
  After graduating from Western Michigan University in 1977, Gregory 
Mansour entered Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Seminary in Washington, DC 
and attended Catholic University of America. Graduating with a degree 
in Theological Studies in 1981, he was ordained a priest on September 
18, 1982 by Bishop John Chedid at St. Michael Church in Flint. He 
celebrated his first Divine Liturgy at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite 
Church and then traveled to Rome to continue his studies earning his 
License in Spiritual Theology from the Gregorian Pontifical Institute.
  Returning from a trip to Lebanon in 1983, Father Mansour began his 
work as a parish priest. He worked as an administrator at St. Maron 
Parish in Philadelphia and served 11 years as pastor to St. George 
Maronite Catholic Church in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Bishop John Chedid 
tapped him to serve as the Eparchy's Protosyncellus, Vicar General, and 
Chancellor for the newly formed Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in Los 
Angeles in 1994. He also served as Advocate/Procurator for the 
Eparchial Marriage Tribunal.
  His Beatitude Patriarch Nasrallah Peter Cardinal Sfeir nominated him 
to Chorbishop and he was ordained on January 21, 1996. When Bishop 
Chedid retired his replacement, Bishop Robert J. Shaheen, with the 
concurrence of the Holy See, moved the See of the Diocese from Los 
Angeles to St. Louis, Missouri. Chorbishop Mansour relocated and 
assumed the additional duties as rector of St. Raymond Cathedral and 
began teaching Spiritual Theology at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.
  When Bishop Stephen Hector Douelhi retired, His Holiness Pope John 
Paul II named Bishop Mansour to succeed him as the head of the Eparchy 
of Saint Maron in Brooklyn. Ordained a bishop in Lebanon on March 2, 
2004, he was enthroned in Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in 
Brooklyn on April 27, 2004.
  Madam Speaker, throughout his life Bishop Mansour has followed the 
words of St. Augustine, ``With you I am a Christian, for you I am (a 
priest, and now) a Bishop.'' Bishop Mansour has kept the promise he 
made 25 years ago to serve Our Lord Jesus Christ with humility, joy, 
and compassion. I ask the House of Representatives to join me in 
congratulating him as he celebrates this momentous occasion and wish 
him the best for the future.

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