Priests retire effective Aug. 1/Father Joubran Bou Merhi

Courtesy photo

+ Enlarge

Father Joubran Bou Merhi

SALT LAKE CITY — Father Joubran Bou Merhi, who has been the pastor of St. Jude Maronite Parish for a total of 30 years, will retire at the end of July.

The parish originally was in Murray; it moved to Taylorsville in 2020. St. Jude Maronite is an Eastern Rite church; the parish is overseen by the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, which is under the direct jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff.

Fr. Bou Merhi has had an active faith life since he was young. As a child, he attended church alone; although his parents had been raised Eastern Orthodox Catholic, they were not active in the faith.

“My parents did not encourage me to go to church at all; it was a personal decision,” he said. “I used to go to school at age 14 or 15 and then coming back from the school, walking home, I usually stopped by the church for Mass on my own.”

Those experiences led to a yearning to delve deeper into his religion. At 18, at the urging of his faith leaders, he decided to give seminary a try. 

“When I broke the news to my mom and dad, my mom said to me, ‘If you decide to go, go, but don’t come back home if it’s your decision,’” he recalled.

Fr. Bou Merhi completed seminary but afterwards felt he did not have enough life experience, particularly in administration and finances, to be able to lead a parish so he decided to delay becoming a priest. Instead, he moved to Canada, where he worked for several years and before long had a career with a large income. His success in the secular world had him preparing to put a down payment on a house, but God and the Church had other plans, he said.

While visiting regularly with a priest from the Oblate of Mary, “He said to me, ‘Why don’t you give it a chance and pursue [the priesthood] now?’” Fr. Bou Merhi said. “I said. ‘I have financial stability now. I don’t know if I’m willing to give up the job to go and become a priest at this time. He said, ‘Try it.’”

Before long the Maronite bishop in New York City reached out to him through that priest, telling him he was needed and should enroll in the Maronite Seminary in Washington, D.C., he recalled.

The decision was difficult, he said. “It was very hard to accept it.” 

However, he followed through and was ordained in 1988. In 1990 he received his first assignment – at St. Jude’s in Utah. The parish had about 100 families at the time.

“I said, ‘Bishop, I’m not ready. I would rather have more experience.’ He said, ‘No, you cannot; go,’” Fr. Bou Merhi said. “I took the chance, the risk, to come with the feeling, ‘I’m not sure if I might stay here, because it’s different.’”

For the first few years he thought he had made a mistake, he said. He missed his life and his family in Canada, and felt like an outsider in his new community. His leaders encouraged him to give it more time, and something amazing began to happen, he said. He fell in love with Utah, his parish and his community — and ended up serving as the pastor for 17 years.

“I fell in love with the people; I felt that too,” he said. “This is here where I belong. This is my family. Now if I have to choose between my biological family or here, I will choose the people here in the valley, because I’m in love with the Catholic Church in this valley.”

During his years as pastor Fr. Bou Merhi participated in hospital ministry at Intermountain Medical Center, St. Mark’s Hospital and the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Throughout his ministry in Utah Fr. Bou Merhi has never had a paid staffer because the parish could not afford it, he said. Instead, over the years he has made use of willing volunteers; some are parishioners, while others come from other parishes and even out of state.

Eventually he received other assignments and served in parishes in Denver, Detroit and St. Louis. Still, he found himself missing Utah and let his superiors know that if an assignment came up in the state, he would accept the position. In 1989 Fr. Bou Merhi returned as the pastor of St. Jude and has held the position ever since. 

Now that it is time to retire, he cannot imagine living anywhere besides Utah, he said, so he has accepted the invitation of Father Samuel Dinsdale, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Holladay, to move into the rectory there at the beginning of August. Fr. Bou Merhi hopes to be able to help out in the parish as well as continue his ministry at St. Mark’s Hospital. He also would like to visit his family in Canada, many of whom he has not seen for 25 years, he said.

St. Jude Maronite Parish’ new pastor, Father Alejandro Landin, will arrive the first week of July from San Antonio, Texas. Fr. Bou Merhi will show him the ropes for a few weeks and will be available to him as an advisor for several months, he said.

When he retires, Fr. Bou Merhi hopes to do so without fanfare from his parishioners, he said.

“The best gift they can give to me is to love one another and to take care of the parish and provide for the next priest,” he said. “My legacy will be to treat the next priest the way they treated me.” 

He has asked his parishioners to welcome the new pastor and be available for him. “I told them, you know, you should be proud he’s an American, and I assume you will step up to the plate and take care of him, and hopefully they will.”