Monsignor Shora Maree
“My aim in life is to stay close to Christ, trust in the power of his Spirit and share in His mission for the glory of the Father”
Mons. Shora was born on 19 December 1961 to Ronny Maree from Kferzghob and Georgette Tabet from Bhamdoun at St. Margret’s hospital in Surry Hills, Sydney. The second eldest of seven children, he grew up in Campsie (now we know why he supports the Bulldog’s) and attended St. Mel’s Primary School as a child. His father Ronny was a very active and respected member in the Maronite Community and took part in many aspects of the management of St. Maroun’s Cathedral in Redfern. The Maree family would attend Mass at St. Maroun’s every Sunday and it is here that Shora began to discern his calling to the priesthood. At a young age, he fell in love with the Maronite Liturgy. So much so that he would actually play “Mass” with the other children at home.
As a teenager, Shora attended Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School in Bowral and St Patrick’s College in Strathfield. During these years, he discovered his love for cricket and modern history and he was inspired by the faith witness of the brothers and lay teachers (some were not Catholic) at the schools he attended. He would get into long debates with them about Christianity and many other issues. During these years, he also took part in the Our Lady of Lebanon choir where his love for the Maronite Liturgy grew even stronger.
After Shora completed his education at school; he enrolled into a Bachelor of Arts course at Sydney University. Having studied for one year at Sydney University, he realized that his calling to the priesthood was much stronger and thus decided to enter St. Patrick’s Seminary in Manly. Shora spent five years in the seminary at Manly and eight months in a seminary in Lebanon. He was ordained to the priesthood on 14 August 1987 by the late Bishop Abdo Khalife at the age of 26.
Father Shora was allocated to St. Maroun’s Parish in Adelaide where he served for four years before returning to Sydney in 1991 to become the Parish Priest of St. Maroun’s Cathedral in Redfern. The young priest recalls crying when he left Sydney to go to Adelaide and also crying when he left Adelaide to come back to Sydney. St. Maroun’s was Father Shora’s first experience as Parish Priest.
On 25 March 1995 he was elevated to Monsignor after just eight years of being ordained into the Priesthood. This off course brought many challenges for him. One of the biggest challenges was being appointed as Parish Priest at St. Joseph’s Parish in Croydon in December 1998. This parish was a very “Lebanese” parish that was not used to an Australian born Parish Priest. Monsignor Shora spent six years in Croydon and in 2004 was appointed as Parish Priest of Our Lady of Lebanon, Harris Park. The sheer size of this Parish was Monsignor Shora’s biggest challenge. However, he quickly acquired the management skills required to run such a big Parish with the help of his assistant Parish Priests and the many volunteers that to this day support him in everything that he does.
Monsignor still enjoys a good game of cricket, loves to read biographies of people who have contributed greatly to the world and loves watching movies with a historical context. In fact his favorite movies are “Titanic” and “The Passion of Christ”. His favorite hymn is “Be not afraid”, his favorite song is “My heart will go on” by Celine Dion and his favorite artist is Andre Brocello. His favorite colour is Maroon (not Maroun!) and would love to travel to Rome and to the Holy Land. His favorite food is chicken with lots and lots of toum (Lebanese through and through). Please Monsignor not before Mass though!!
By Danny Nouh
