That was just a poorly-worded sentence on my part. I didn’t mean to imply that Bashir intentionally “disappeared” to Mexico, or something. It’s just that, I’m aware of the fact that he went to Mexico, but I don’t know what exactly he was doing down there. Most likely, you’re right — he was probably serving the Arab Orthodox there.

My apologies for the misleading sentence.

Why would going to Mexico mean “to disappear?” There was, and is, a large Arab Mexican community (the birthplace, for instance of the Modern Arab writer Albert Adib). St. Raphael had also visited Mexico as part of his duties in the Russian Mission.