During a visit paid to His Beatitude the Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir yesterday, the Fares Foundation Director General Mr. William Mjalli revealed that a phone call was held between the Patriarch and former Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares during which he informed him that The Pope Benedictus XVI ‘granted him a high-level Papal Order from the Rank of Commandant with star of Saint-Greagory the Great, in appreciation of his positive contributions in the service of justice, peace, and human rights, in the promotion of the dialogue of cultures, and in the enhancement of the reconciliation spirit among individuals and groups inside Lebanon and overseas’.

Mr. Mjalli went on saying, ‘The Pope Benedictus XVI assigned Patriarch Sfeir with the task of representing him and granting Fares the Papal Order in an official spiritual ceremony during the Patriarch’s scheduled visit to Paris on June 14’.