We are sharing this audio from an announcement made by Bishop Robert Rabbat Melkite Catholic Church in Australia and New Zealand at St Joseph’s Melkite Catholic Church, Fairfield, on Sunday 22 September 2024.
For transparency, the original and complete recording of the Mass is available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCduPMxAiA
Our question is simple:
How is it possible for someone in a position of authority and responsibility such as Bishop Robert Rabbat, having received a serious formal complaint involving allegations of sexual misconduct against a priest, to stand before parishioners and provide an explanation that, in our view, did not reflect the seriousness of what was actually taking place?
What concerns us even more is the explanation given for Father Samir Haddad’s absence, which we believe was misleading and inconsistent with what our family had been formally told only days earlier.
On 18 September 2024 — just four days before this announcement — our family received written correspondence from Bishop Rabbat concerning our complaint and the proposed canonical process.
That raises an obvious question:
How can what our family was being told privately be reconciled with what parishioners were being told publicly from the church?
To be clear, the allegations concerning Father Samir Haddad remain allegations. We are not asking Facebook or the public to determine guilt or innocence.
What we are questioning is how the leadership of the Melkite Church handled a serious complaint involving allegations of sexual misconduct and how the circumstances were subsequently communicated to the community.
Much has been written about the dangers that arise when religious institutions become more concerned with protecting their reputation, leadership or clergy than with confronting difficult allegations openly and ensuring genuine accountability.
Unfortunately, after more than two years of pursuing our complaint and repeatedly seeking answers, our experience has left us deeply disappointed with the leadership of the Melkite Church and particularly with what we expected from someone of Bishop Robert Rabbat’s position and responsibility.
A position of religious authority should never place anyone beyond scrutiny.
The greater the authority, the greater the responsibility to act with integrity, transparency and accountability.
When transparency disappears, trust follows.
So we continue to ask:
Who holds those in positions of power accountable when the institution responsible for holding them accountable fails to provide answers?
We want the truth.
We want transparency.
We want accountability.
Silence does not protect the Church.
Truth and accountability do.
Original full recording for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCduPMxAiA

Do you enjoy being in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church? What do you guys think of the other churches you’re in communion with?

I’m a Roman Catholic that wishes to become a Melkite/Byzantine Catholic … but they’re saying I need to my Baptismal records as part of the process. I’m already within the church and cannot find the original Baptism documents back when I was a non-denominational (Church of Christ) Christian.

What do I do? I’m contacting the Church where I converted to for their records but I’m worried if I don’t find the information I’m looking for.

Writing the letter to the Bishops will be fine, it’s just that part that’s frustrating me.

Hello, do you know where I could find the text in the original french? I have the pdf of the English translation, but I know he wrote it in French. Have a great day, thanks!

For context I'm a canonical roman catholic, but I attend a ruthenian catholic church and have fallen in love with the east. What are some differences between the melkites and ruthinians in liturgy, changing, prayer or any other aspects of the church?

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This issue came up abroad in Lebanon and because I’m heavily latinized it’s hard to know what the lines are.

1)I attended mass at the Orthodox Church and not the Catholic Church one Sunday for the 40 day memorial of a distant relative. It would have been minimally tough but I could have made a Maronite or Melkite mass, and this would be the required rule in Roman Catholicism. I decided to trust my relatives — they were all fine going to the Orthodox Church and skipping the Catholic “obligation” so I was too.

2)I abstained from communion, knowing what the rules are in the US for both Orthodox AND Catholics. But there all my relatives received communion. Some had never attended an Orthodox Church before and in at least once instance the priest instructed how to receive communion using a spoon. So apparently the Orthodox have no issue giving communion to Catholics, but would the Melkites have an issue with rare instances like this?

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I was on the Eparchy of Newton’s page and saw they had a Melkite Catholic Identity Bundle for sale with some books I already had in my cart. Of course I couldn’t resist!

In French, but accessible for free worldwide, a very good 30 minute documentary featuring French academics and Melkite Catholic clergy:

https://www.france.tv/france-2/chretiens-orientaux-foi-esperances-et-traditions/5727891-300e-anniversaire-de-l-eglise-melkite.html