Archbishop Antonio Chedraoui Tannous passes away

The Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Church of Antioquia for Mexico, Venezuela, Central America and the Caribbean, Antonio Chedraoui Tannous, passed at 04:53 hours this Wednesday as a result of the lung cancer that he suffered and that aggravated last year.

According to sources close to the archbishop, memorial services will be held at

 the Cathedral of San Pedro and San Pablo in Bosque Real, Huixquilucan, State of Mexico.

At age 85 and born in Tripoli, Lebanon, he was hospitalized last January so he suspended his birthday celebration on the 17th of that month, as he traditionally did to meet with leaders of the political, business, diplomatic and religious sectors of the country.

Antonio Chedraoui arrived in Mexico on December 25, 1966, and in 1994 he obtained the Mexican nationality. In 1996, the Synod of the Patriarchate promoted Chedraoui Tannous to the category of archbishopric to the archdiocese, for which he was named Metropolitan Archbishop.

In 2010 he was admitted as a Number Academician at the National Academy of History and Geography, an institution sponsored by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

The religious minister directed the construction of the Cathedral of San Pedro and San Pablo, in Huixquilucan, 

State of Mexico

, where each year the leader of the Orthodox Church in Mexico headed the divine liturgy in celebration of his birthday, an event that several characters from the political life of Mexico used to attend.

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