The Greek Orthodox Diocese of Jbeil, Batroun releases statement on the case of Michelle Mikhael Al-Hajl

The Greek Orthodox Diocese of Jbeil, Batroun, and their environs (Mount Lebanon) issued a statement regarding the case of the young woman, Michelle Mikhael Al-Hajl, in which it stated:

In light of what has become circulating on social media about events related to the spiritual daughter Michelle Al-Hajjal, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Jbeil, Batroun, and their environs (Mount Lebanon) is interested in stating the following:

Michel Mikhael Al-Hajl is a spiritual daughter within the parish of Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Jal El Dib of the Diocese of Mount Lebanon. The daughter, Michelle, passed away in the Lord at a young age, after a struggle full of faith with cancer, in June 2019.

By reviewing the stage of illness of the spiritual daughter Michelle, the follow-up shepherd notes that the people gathered around her with their love and accompaniment to her with their supplications and their moral support before the material ones until the day she passed away, so everyone gathered around her in the bosom of the church that covered her with certainty asking for divine mercy and eternal life, which is what every loving and trusting person aspires to in the Lord. It is what Michelle expressed by surrendering herself to the will of the Lord in the midst of the ordeal of illness in which she passed before falling asleep.

Today, people’s love returns to gather around the events centered on our spiritual daughter Michelle, the most prominent of which is the non-decomposition of her body after nearly four years of her sleep. The family’s love for the Lord and the Church led it wisely to place these events in the bosom of the Church, which returns and includes Michelle, along with her family, and every lover of the Lord, with certainty seeking the holiness that the Church hopes for all her sons and daughters. The Holy Lady calls them through the following proclamation: “Holy things are for the saints”; Where the answer of the believing community is: “One Holy One and One Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen”.

Against the background of this splendid ecclesiastical scene, the pastor of the diocese, His Eminence Metropolitan Silwan Moussa, met with the family of the spiritual daughter, Michelle Al-Hajl, in the presence of the concerned priests.

After receiving the original file, the Archdiocese will take the initiative to take the necessary and appropriate measures, drawing inspiration from the will of the Lord and acting upon its guidance according to the Orthodox tradition and the applicable regulations in our Holy Antiochian Church.

In this first stage, perhaps the most prominent role of the diocese is the “accompaniment”:
– Accompanying the event or events by documenting them, evaluating them scientifically and giving them a sound Orthodox spiritual reading;
– Accompanying the believers in their interaction with the events and providing them with pastoral guidance according to what we received from the holy fathers.

Undoubtedly, this accompaniment will extend in time to the extent necessary. These events are in and of themselves extended in time, and they fall within the life of the Church within the dimension of waiting that is coupled with hope for the life of the ecclesiastical community on the Lord and for the manifestation of the work of His Holy Spirit in its midst as a group seeking His face and always seeking His pleasure.

Moreover, this stage is nothing but a preliminary one that precedes the referral of the file, after certainty, to the “Committee of Holiness and Saints”, which is the synodal committee entrusted with examining and studying the files under this heading in order to submit them when the time comes to the Holy Antiochian Synod, which alone has the right to declare in this field.

In light of the foregoing, the Archdiocese requests, as a matter of following up the file in a proper and orderly manner, that it be adopted as the official reference for any information regarding the file after the matter has come under its care, reserving for itself the matter of disclosing what it deems obligatory to disclose through statements issued by it in a timely manner.

In conclusion, we point out that what we learned from our Antiochian Orthodox Church in such circumstances is that we pass from the person or from the event to the Lord, returning before Him to ourselves with the question: Is it a sign of satisfaction with what we experience, O Lord, or is it a reason for repentance, or is it both? This question comes at a time when the shepherds, in their accompanying believing sons and daughters, in the same circumstance as Michelle’s, or in another circumstance, are looking forward to living, good testimonies confirming that the Lord is calling us as a believing people, especially our young men and women, to perform together a truthful and undiscriminatory testimony to Him in our lives. Conquering sin and victorious over death.