Fr. Charbel Bteich
Born in Lebanon (in Kfardebian, Mount Lebanon) on 18 October 1980, Maronite Catholic, and ordained priest on 1 August 2014, he was incardinated in the Maronite Archdiocese of Cyprus.
He completed a Master’s degree in Computer, Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering in 2004 at the Faculty of Engineering of the Lebanese University, and worked and taught for three years in Systems Engineering before entering the novitiate in the Maronite Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In Rome since 2008, he pursued his philosophical and theological studies at the Pontifical Lateran University, and obtained a Licentiate in Fundamental Theology in 2015. From 2015 to 2017, he collaborated as a member in the Research Project “Spirituality of the Reformation” of the I.S.S.R. Ecclesia Mater, promoted by the National Service for Higher Studies in Theology and Religious Sciences of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI).
From 2017 to 2021 he was Procurator General and Rector of the Maronite Mariamite College in Rome.
Since 2023 he is pursuing his doctorate in Fundamental Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, with a research on paradox in theology from the Works of Ephrem the Syrian and Henri De Lubac.
He is also member of the Pontifical Institute Santa Maria dell’Anima, the College of German-speaking priests in Rome.
In addition to Arabic (native language), he is fluent in French, Italian, English and German, and proficient in Syriac, Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
As of 1 November 2024, he is the Vice General Secretary of the Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) for a five-year term.