Paul Fouad Tabet


Paul Fouad Tabet was a Lebanese prelate of the Maronite Church, part of the Catholic Church, who spent his career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He became an archbishop in 1980 and service as an apostolic nuncio from 1980 to 2009 in the Caribbean, Nigeria, Geneva, and Greece.

Life

Born in Maarab, Lebanon, on 28 November 1929, Tabet was ordained a priest on 22 December 1956 for the Maronite Church.
To prepare for a diplomatic career he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1960.
From 1978 to 1980 he was a commissioner of the Roman Curia on the West Indies. In addition, he was named an honorary prelate.
On 9 February 1980, Pope John Paul II appointed Tabet titular archbishop of Sinna, Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, and Delegate to the remainder of the Caribbean, which the Vatican calls the Antilles. He was consecrated bishop on 30 March 1980 by the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, Cardinal Anthony Peter Khoraish, assisted by co-consecrators Chucrallah Harb, Eparch of Jounieh, and Roland Aboujaoudé, auxiliary bishop of Antioch. On 11 February 1984, his responsibilities were expanded with the additional title of Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Belize.
On 8 September 1984, he was reassigned as Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Nigeria.
On 14 December 1991, he was appointed the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva. He held that post until March 1995.
On 2 January 1996, he was named Apostolic Nuncio to Greece. He retired from the diplomatic service when he was replaced in that position on 25 January 2005.
Tabet was member of the honorary committee of the Bios Prize Award of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Paul Fouad Tabet died on 20 July 2009.