Elias and his siblings were baptized into the Melkite faith and raised in a devout household, attending liturgy daily, reading the bible together as a family and praying the Office every afternoon.
[6] He was ordained a priest at Saint Anne Melkite Basilica in Jerusalem on July 20, 1936, following which he was appointed a professor of Arabic Literature and Mathematics at the seminary.
As he began to study both the historical roots of the separation and the modern divisions of Middle Eastern churches he came to the opinion that the schism was unjustifiable.
As the leader of the Melkite church in Egypt Zoghby was a vocal proponent of rights for Christians, and opposed the limitations placed on them by that country's Law of Personal Statutes.
[13] Zoghby's efforts helped shape the formation of Orientalium Ecclesiarum, although, to his disappointment, in his view it did not adequately address the needs of the Eastern Catholic Churches or bridge the gulf between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.
While Orientalium Ecclesiarum encouraged Eastern Catholics to uphold their traditions and values, Zoghby felt that it "turn[ed] a blind eye" to true intercommunion (communicatio in sacris).
[14] Following the Council he opposed the ascension to the cardinalate of Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh, stating that the leader of an Eastern Catholic church should not hold a subordinate Latin-rite office.
In August 1968 the Melkite Synod elected Zoghby archbishop of Baalbek to replace the recently deceased eparch, Joseph Malouf.
[15] Zoghby's ecumenical initiatives gained visibility in May 1974 with the exchange of visits between the Melkite Catholic and the Antiochian Orthodox synods, which met simultaneously in Lebanon.