Vatican City, Jun 23, 2008 / 08:20 am
On Saturday, June 21, Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of His Beatitude Michel Sabbah upon having reached the age limit of 75 years old. Archbishop Fouad Twal has succeeded him as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The new patriarch was born in Madaba, Jordan, on October 23, 1940. He was ordained a priest in 1966 and then spent several years as part of the Holy See’s diplomatic corp.
His tenure as a diplomat lasted from 1977 to 1992 and included stints at the apostolic nunciatures of Honduras, Germany and Peru. During this time he also served at the council for public affairs at the Vatican Secretariat of State.
Fouad Twal became a bishop on July 22, 1992, when he was ordained as the bishop of Tunis. On May 31, 1995, he was made archbishop of the same city.
He received his appointment as coadjutor of Jerusalem on September 8, 2005.