Retired Maronite Bishop Shaheen of Los Angeles dies at age 80

ST. LOUIS (CNS) — Retired Bishop Robert J. Shaheen, who was the second bishop to head the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, died in St. Louis Aug. 9. Bishop Shaheen, who turned 80 June 3, was a native of Danbury, Conn., and ordained a priest in 1964. He was the first Maronite priest to be ordained in the United States and was assigned as pastor of St. Raymond’s Maronite Church, now cathedral, in 1967.

The parish was founded in 1912 to serve Maronite Catholics primarily of Lebanese and Syrian descent. On Dec. 5, 2000, St. John Paul II named him the second bishop of the Maronite eparchy.

He retired in 2013. The eparchy, which relocated its headquarters from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 2001, extends across 34 states, ministering to about 46,800 Maronite Catholics from California to Ohio and Michigan to Alabama. “We pray for the repose of his soul, and give thanks to God for all of the lives that Bishop Shaheen has touched in his extraordinary life” said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, the eparchy’s current bishop and successor to Bishop Shaheen.