MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Raya, Joseph-Marie, Archbishop, 1916–2005
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Descriptive Summary
Record Group: Section A - Correspondence
Dates of materials: 1960, 1973
Volume: 2 item(s); 2 pg(s)
Scope and Content
This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "Raya, Joseph-Marie, Archbishop".
Biography
At the time of writing Fr. Joseph Raya (later Archbishop Raya) was a priest of the Melkite Rite serving in Birmingham, Alabama. Raya was born in Zahle, Lebanon. After studying for the priesthood in Paris and Jerusalem, he spent some time in Zahle and in Cairo before coming to the United States in 1948. He spent time in New Jersey before going to Alabama, where he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights struggle and was twice beaten by the Klu Klux Klan. Anticipating the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he celebrated the Melkite Mass in the English vernacular instead of the traditional Arabic. He later became the Melkite archbishop in Akka, Israel, in 1968. He was a strong defender of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their land after the 1967 Six-Day War. He brought together 24,000 Christians, Jews and Muslims in a Peace March to the Knesset in August of 1972. In the 1980's, he returned to his homeland of war-torn Lebanon. He also had ties to Merton's friend Catherine Doherty, serving as the first "Associate Priest" to Madonna House in 1959. (Source: "Archbishop Joseph M. Raya has died at 88". Restoration: The Madonna House Catholic Newspaper. 13 June 2005. Website of Madonna House. Accessed 16 Feb. 2006. ‹http://www.madonnahouse.org/restoration/2005/06/archbishop_joseph_m_raya_has_.html›.)
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