Archbishop Ignatius Raad (1923-1999)

On Tuesday, July 20, 1999, Archbishop Ignatius Raad, a renowned canonist and retired Archbishop of Saida and Dair El-Kamar (Lebanon) died unexpectedly at Montréal, Canada from a heart ailment at age 75. Ignatius Raad was born on December 20, 1923 at Kfar-Nabrakh in the Shouf Mountains of Lebanon and entered the Monastery of the Holy Savior as a pre-teen where he completed his initial schooling and seminary education. Ordained a priest on November 9, 1947, the young cleric began graduate studies in Rome where he earned doctorates in both political science and law (in utroque jure).

From 1953 through 1972, Father Raad served the Melkite community at Cairo, Egypt where he functioned as president of the ecclesiastical court and Patriarchal Vicar.

He moved to the Vatican in 1972 where he was appointed as a Judge Auditor of the Sacred Rota where he contributed regularly to the development of jurisprudenceand, in 1974, was appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Eastern Code of Canon Law. He made outstanding contributions to the revised Eastern Code as a member of the coetus that dealt with the canons De Processibus or the laws concerning canonical processes and procedures.

Elected Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saida and Dair El-Kamar by the Melkite-Greek Catholic Synod on September 9, 1981, he was consecrated to the episcopacy by His Beatitude, Patriarch Maximos V Hakim, assisted by Archbishops Nicholas Hajj and Francois Abou-Mokh, at Damascus, Syria on October 30, 1981.

In September 1985, following political upheaval in southern Lebanon, he resigned his post in Saida and was appointed moderator of the Greek-Catholic ecclesiastical courts in Lebanon.

Appointed Judicial Vicar and canonical consultant to L'Éparchie de Saint-Sauveur at Montréal, Canada in 1993, the retired Archbishop applied his considerable expertise in canon law to the establishment of the Matrimonial Tribunal for the Melkites in Canada where he served until his untimely death in July 1999.

Writing for the Eastern journal of canon law: Kanon in 1977, the Archbishop defended the rights of the laity for active participation in the life of the Melkite-Greek Catholic Church.

An intensely private man, Archbishop Raad shunned public display during the years of his retirement but was called upon frequently for an expert opinion concerning the many issues of law that arose after the promulgation of the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches by Pope John Paul II in 1990. May his memory be eternal.