Georges Haddad

Georges Haddad (born on 14 March 1924 in Beit Chabad, Lebanon - died on 31 December 1985) was Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre in Lebanon.

On 26 June 1948 Haddad was ordained to the priesthood. During his time Haddad was the first archimandrite of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Brazil and he was there co-founder of a church in Rio de Janeiro, which later became the chair of the Byzantine believers in Brazil.

Haddad was appointed as Archbishop of Tyre, succeeding Archbishop Agapios Salomon Naoum. The Patriarch of Antioch Maximos IV Sayegh on July 30, 1965 ordained him bishop. He was assisted by the co-consecrators Archbishop Basile Khoury, BS of Sidon in Lebanon and Archbishop Mikhayl Assaf of Petra and Philadelphia in Jordan. In 1965 Haddad was a participant at the last session of the Second Vatican Council. During his tenure, Haddad was co-consecrator of:

After his death on December 31, 1985, Jean Assaad Haddad became his successor.

On 7 June 1982, the city of Tyre was threatened by an Israeli tank attack. Tyre was considered a stronghold of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In a bold single-handedly Archbishop Georges Haddad asked the Israeli military column counter and pushed for negotiations. He succeeded in obtaining an attack delay, so that was not killed or injured civilians in the fighting. And so the media reported:

"A man was seen in white robe, Metropolitan Georges Haddad. The crowd, mostly Muslims, made trellis and called out to the confused Christians herders". Long live our Father, our Archbishop" The talk now a second time on an Israeli colonel. Then gave Israeli loudspeaker vans known: "You may all go home, your metropolitans sake." On the shoulders of his fellow citizens Georges Haddad returned to his intact retarded archbishopric. In the courtyard, in Phoenician column fragments, he fell on his knees and prayed. Christians and Muslims joined to him."

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Wikipedia